LAST weekend’s classics day in Epsom resulted in much debate on the various performances. It resembled the Too Good, Too Bad segment on Match Of The Day, in which they select some of best, worst and amusing stories from a weekend of action.

Serpentine won the Derby by five and a half lengths at odds of 25/1 on Saturday. Too bad, some thought. How exactly did that happen? The Derby looked over at Tattenham Corner. It was shades of Slip Anchor many years ago. But he was favourite. Serpentine can’t be that good?

And what of jockey Emmet McNamara, who made pretty much all the running and judged the pace perfectly. What a ride from someone rarely in the spotlight. The unanimous conclusion - too good.

But what were all those jockeys doing waiting out of their ground, Dettori, Moore, Murphy, Heffernan?

We had outsiders finish in second and third, the first three never changed in the last four furlongs. Surely those rides on the more fancied runners were just too bad?

It was a record setting eighth win in the race for Aidan O’Brien – an astonishing record. But some cried what a depressing Derby! ‘Same winners again and with a second string horse’. They didn’t read the small print.

Then we had Galileo siring his fifth Derby winner. The race acclaimed as the stallion defining race. But was that too good or too bad? That’s four Derbys in two years. Anthony Van Dyck, Sovereign, Santiago, Serpentine. You can be too good at your job!

Finding places for them all at stud may be a challenge and we also have Japan and Circus Maximus also still competing to earn their next career as stallions.

Then we had Love winning the Oaks, adding to her 1000 Guineas win and scoring by nine lengths in record time.

She went off 4/1, joint second favourite for the Guineas – but then we can ignore that as any indication of her talent. Three-year-olds are a work in progress. Enable went off at 6/1 for her Oaks.

Love jumped to favouritism for the Arc, ahead of Enable and Ghaiyyath. She was too good. But was she too good to be true? The Arc’s a long way off and it’s been a short season to date. No pleasing some people!

Derby questions

Dissecting the Derby took many hours as we sifted through racing media on Sunday and Monday.

Can we take it as face value? Was Serpentine overlooked? It seems possible. His breeding (It did catch my eye last week) indicated Epsom would be suitable, by Galileo from an Oaks second in Remember When, a three-parts sister to Dylan Thomas. The sectional times don’t indicate that is was any great fluke.

But how did the two outsiders stick on for second and third? Perhaps Jamie Lynch got it right on Sky Sports Racing on Sunday, when he said that the Oaks, where Love easily reeled in the pacemakers, influenced behaviour in the Derby, as the main field sat and waited too long, thinking the “pacemaker” would come back?

And remember Ruby Walsh’s recent review of the 2019 Irish Derby, on how the pace and positioning unfolded in Sovereign’s success. The horses in second place early did not pull the more fancied runners close soon enough and Sovereign was gone and the others given too much to do. It was similar with Serpentine. Letting a talented Galileo horse loose on the lead, we know by now, is folly. They don’t stop. For all that it may not have been the race we expected, it was a fascinating Derby and more so when placed alongside the Oaks.

Too bad? We’ve missed a lot this season and now there’s always the next, even more interesting battle. It’s all good!