DO you remember Identify and Tasdid? They are not necessarily names that bring with them an instant recall, yet they were the pair of Irish-trained runners in the Vodafone Oaks and Vodafone Derby at Epsom two decades ago.

The Jim Bolger-trained Identify beat two home in the fillies’ classic, while Kevin Prendergast’s colt, a 200/1 outsider, finished mid-division in the race won by Shaamit, who beat Dushyantor and Shantou.

Michael Kinane replaced Kevin Manning on the Michael Smurfit-owned and bred Identify who went to Epsom after winning the 10-furlong Listed Silver Race at the Curragh. That was to be the highlight of her racing career, which yielded three victories. The daughter of Persian Bold later bred four winners from six foals at stud, the stakes-placed Oh So Awesome being the best of them.

The Oaks that year was won by Wafic Said’s Lady Carla who was trained by Henry Cecil and ridden by Pat Eddery. A daughter of Caerleon, Lady Carla had a less than distinguished career as a broodmare, with fewer than half of her dozen foals winning a race. She bred a pair of group-placed horses by Kingmambo and Mr Greeley, and is the grandam of a stakes winner.

The colts’ classic produced a winner who will also rank as one of the poorer winners of the race. Shaamit was trained by William Haggas for his owner/breeder Khalifa Abdulla Dasmal and the son of Mtoto was making just his third career start, and seasonal debut, when he lined-up at Epsom.

He had been supplemented for the race after Haggas’s father-in-law Lester Piggott rode work on the colt. The decision to run was fully justified, though he never produced that level of form again in his subsequent starts.

Originally at stud in Newmarket at the National Stud, Shaamit moved for the 2001 season to Alfie Buller’s Scarvagh House Stud but he died of a ruptured stomach in April of that year. From just a few crops he sired one horse of any real note, the St Leger winner Bollin Eric. He has done little since at stud to redeem Shaamit’s reputation or ensure his legacy.

DEAD-HEAT

As the Derby was being run, racing in Ireland was staged at the Curragh and the day’s feature race was the Group 2 Gallinule Stakes. Eight went to post but it was a 1-2 for the British raiders, Clive Brittain’s Needle Gun taking the honours at the expense of David Loder’s Prince Of Andros. There was a dead-heat for third between Jim Bolger’s Al Mohaajir and Aidan O’Brien’s His Excellence. Jim Bolger did not go home empty handed and he won the opening two-year-old maiden with Mosconi, owned and bred by Harry Dobson, later adding the Santa Claus Handicap with Kevin Manning in the saddle on Analisa, who won by six lengths, giving weight to all.

Another trainer to record a double on the card was Con Collins and the first leg was won by his wife Barbara’s great servant The Bower, who later in the season went on to add a listed race at the now defunct Tralee. The son of Don’t Forget Me was a seven-year-old at the time.

The name Barry Connell was perhaps not as well-known 20 years ago as it is today, but he was in the winners’ enclosure after Dr Beat, trained by David Hanley, denied Con Collins a treble on the day when landing the Hard Ridden Handicap in the hands of Richard Hughes. The winning jockey had ridden in Ireland since he made his race riding debut and until moving to England for the 1994 season. He is now making a success of his new career as a trainer.

John Oxx had a monopoly on the Larkspur Maiden, a nine-furlong race for three-year-olds, and he saddled the first three home. Dermot Hogan won well on Sheikh Mohammed’s L’Opera from Grief, with the favourite Ansias back in third. The winning son of Old Vic was successful in half of his six starts for Oxx and then, less than two months after joining David Nicholson’s yard, he made a stunning hurdle debut, winning a Grade 2 race with Adrian Maguire in the plate.