THE days are gone when housewives would ask “What’s Lester riding?” before having a rare flutter, but that’s how it used to be on the first Wednesday in June.

The Derby once appealed to every section of the community, and was an event which briefly halted a nation in its tracks. Now it craves a more refined audience, eschewing its traditional midweek slot, and the expectation among those responsible for promoting it as an event is that we should be talking primarily about the sense of occasion and the merits of the horses due to line up.

Normally I’d be banging the drum for more talk of the horses, but that’s simply never been the way with the Derby, given that most once-a-year enthusiasts don’t know the participants (they have half a chance of finding a familiar name among the Grand National runners).

If you wanted to assess the form 60 years ago, you’d turn up at Epsom and listen to Prince Monolulu’s cries of “I’ve gotta horse!” Then, being shrewd, put a line through it. Otherwise, Derby Day was about the occasion, but for everyone hoping to rub shoulders with the Queen, there were plenty more looking forward to a bit of fun, with Epsom’s hill playing host to what was effectively the grandest and most daring funfair in the land. To put it bluntly, the track action was a distraction, but the real show was the sideshow.

DIFFERENT SIDESHOW

This year, there has been a different sideshow, and while sensible people have complained that it is detracting from the big race, the bottom line is that a week discussing whether Cracksman’s experience of Epsom might confer a minor advantage is dreadfully dull.

Thank goodness then, for the idiocy of Richard Aylward. Mr Aylward is the breeder and de facto owner of Derby runner Diore Lia, a filly of limited ability, but now better known to many than the Derby favourite. Aylward’s antics include attempting to get Melbourne Cup heroine Michelle Payne to ride, switching yards after original handler Jane Chapple-Hyam said “no-go” to his Derby dream, and dressing the vanity project up as a charity drive, even though the money raised for Great Ormond Street Hospital so far amounts to just a fraction in what has been paid in entry fees.

His biggest impact, though, has been forcing the BHA to make utter fools of themselves in trying to prevent her participation under apprentice rider Gina Mangan, who was Aylward’s second pick when Payne cried off.

The BHA made a statement in response to negative press speculation that there was no rule precluding Diore Lia’s participation, or Mangan’s right to ride.

It then performed a spectacular U-turn when Jamie Stier (he of the Speculative Bid fiasco) discovered that there actually was a rule which gave the authority carte blanche to stop any horse from running at their discretion. Rather than prevent Diore Lia from being declared, however, the decision was made merely to stop Mangan from riding, on the basis that she lacked experience of both Epsom and a race on the “scale and stage” as the Derby.

The understanding was that Aylward would not declare if his preferred jockey wasn’t available, and it was reported that the filly had been taken out of the race. To the surprise of many, however, connections declared with Paddy Pilley, another apprentice of long standing, in the plate.

There was no need for the BHA to get involved again, but they managed to shoot themselves in the foot by issuing a statement comparing the case of Mangan and former Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton, which pointed out that the 2016 Foxhunter in which Pendleton completed was not the pinnacle of flat racing, that many other riders in the Foxhunter were less experienced than Pendleton, that her horse was known for it’s (sic) surefooted jumping, and that she had received expert tuition.

I have no issue with Victoria Pendleton’s participation at Cheltenham, but notions of her suitability as put forward are erroneous and raise the issue about elitism.

Mangan was prevented from riding on safety grounds, so the status of the race is of dubious relevance, while the “many riders” with less experience under National Hunt rules than Pendleton amount to precisely zero - an absolutely bizarre assertion in the circumstances. Her surefooted mount had actually unseated her earlier in the season, and to highlight the tuition that she received from experts over a period of months is easily taken as an accusation that Gina Mangan’s RACE training is in some way inferior. It’s almost enough to make you cheer for the filly on Saturday. Almost.