THERE was a lot of good about last Saturday’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby. There was the race for starters, the finish, the toe-to-toe between Harzand and Idaho, between Pat Smullen and Ryan Moore. Two top-class horses and two top-class riders in their prime, all four giving their all.

It was in the balance for a few strides, Idaho actually traded at 1.73 in-running, and the pair of them pulled nicely clear of their rivals.

In a sense, it was the ‘right’ winner, the Epsom Derby winner returning to the Curragh, an Irish horse, Irish-bred, Irish-trained, Irish-ridden.

Not that Idaho wouldn’t have been a worthy winner, but there is a sense of completion about an Irish Epsom Derby winner coming home and winning at the Curragh as well.

It was Dermot Weld’s third Irish Derby, after Zagreb and Grey Swallow, but that did not appear to diminish the magnitude of the occasion for him. It was a similar story for the Aga Khan, it was his sixth – Shergar, Shahrastani, Kahyasi, Sinndar, Alamshar, in case you are asked in a table quiz – four of whom had also, like Harzand, won the Epsom Derby, but you still sensed that it meant an awful lot.“Our operation has been family run for four generations,” the owner/breeder said. “The effort at stud has to illustrate itself on the racecourse. So thanks to everyone who has helped this horse get to where he is today.”

You could see that it also meant the world to Pat Smullen. The rider said afterwards that, after Epsom, he didn’t think that it could be any better. It was his first Epsom Derby win after all. But Saturday’s win was at least up there, he told us, even though it wasn’t his first. Maybe it was better. To do it in front of your home crowd.

Smullen’s talents continue to gain traction around the world, and that is as it should be. He is a world-class rider. On the home front, that’ll surely be another day off for the school kids in Rhode then.