WHO could have predicted, when Galileo was sent to the front at the two-furlong marker by Mick Kinane 20 years ago, the effect that very horse and his trainer would have on the Derby.

Galileo gave O’Brien his first Derby win and was the sire of four of his next seven winners. The pair are just a shade of odds against to extend their sensational combined record with Bolshoi Ballet in the race today.

“Galileo was almost the perfect racehorse,” O’Brien reflected this week. “He had speed, stamina and was just a marvellous horse. Because of what he’s done at stud, it can get forgotten just how good he was on the track.

“He won the English and Irish Derby and then went on to win the King George, he was special. He was our first Derby winner, so he’s had a big say on my career. His legacy will live on for a long time through his fillies and his colts.”

Of course, Galileo’s influence stretches beyond Ballydoyle. New Approach was also a Derby winning son and in 2019, he was remarkably the sire, grandsire or great-grandsire of 12 of the 13 Derby runners. His influence isn’t quite as pronounced today but seven of the 12 runners are connected to him.

Lukewarm

But obviously Coolmore are the main benificiaries of Galileo’s seismic effect. The resulted dominance has possibly been a factor in the current lukewarm feeling towards the race, with many breeders and buyers opting to take on a different approach. That’s understandable because if you’re lucky enough to breed a Derby contender without using Galileo, or indeed one of his sons, you’ve then got to go and beat one of them on the day, an unenviable task when coupled together.

Whether that is a good or bad thing for the Derby is another conversation, one with a more objective longer-term view. In the immediate, the Derby could really do with a star. For all that Galileo has dominated the race, his latest two winners Serpentine and Anthony Van Dyck failed to capture imagination on the day or indeed in their races after.

Both were priced behind at least two better fancied stablemates which in a way tells the story. It’s telling that ‘the lads’ have decided such an instance will not be allowed to happen today and put all their eggs into one basket.

Only on one occasion since Galileo has O’Brien saddled just one runner in the Derby (Meath, 2004). There is a Derby saying that if you have four horses for the race, you probably don’t have one at all, but strength in numbers has won the day for Ballydoyle in the Derby more than once.

For that reason there was a huge surprise on Wednesday when Aidan O’Brien announced that Bolshoi Ballet would likely be his only runner in the race, but maybe that’s where we’re at with Coolmore and the Derby.

There was something of a hollow feeling to the victories of the likes of Serpentine and Wings Of Eagles and perhaps having five-plus runners in the race has become self-defeating. That sounds ridiculous but Coolmore’s dominance in the race has afforded them such a luxury.

Running Bolshoi Ballet without even one pace-setting stablemate is surely a mammoth vote of confidence in the colt and a win for him gives Coolmore something that a win for say, The Mediterranean or Sir Lamorak, couldn’t have.

Bolshoi Ballet bids to follow his sire’s route to Derby glory, having taken in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown. He was a lot more impressive than his sire was in winning that contest, putting five lengths between himself and his rivals and demonstrating his straightforward nature that should serve him well on the twists, ups and downs today.

“I am very happy with him, everything has gone well so far,” O’Brien reported this week. “He is a very well-balanced horse. He seems to get the mile and quarter very well and he is very relaxed, very off-handed, and tactically he is very easy to place in a race.

“We always thought middle distances wouldn’t be a problem. You’re never sure until you run over the mile and a half, but we always thought he would stay.”

The Derby needs a star. We haven’t had one since Golden Horn in 2016. Bolshoi Ballet’s auditions have gone well but can he produce the foot-perfect performance on the big day?

YESTERDAY it was 10 years to the day since Mickael Barzalona stood bolt upright in his irons, his whip pointed high into the Epsom sky while he screamed elation into a six-figure crowd that were still waiting for the Derby to finish.

While all eyes gazed wide when the 19-year-old Frenchman, previously unheard of and having his first ride in the race, for much of the straight the majority roared for the Queen’s Carlton House. Winner of the Dante, Carlton House was subject of a nationwide gamble in the race, with the British media lapping up the royal connection.

There were gasps even before the race when the son of Street Cry, a gift to Her Majesty from Sheikh Mohammed, proved reluctant to go into the stalls. He did eventually and though pushed wide by what Ryan Moore would later describe as “dead wood” runners falling back, Carlton House appeared to have every chance of catching Aidan O’Brien’s Treasure Beach.

That he couldn’t and, dramatically, the pair were both overhauled by a sensational late surge from the French raider, whose jockey’s exuberance had more than just a bit of ‘Je ne sais quoi’ about it.

It was a full three strides before the line that Barzalona felt enough had been done and it was time to project his feelings, prompting a sensational photo finish where instead of pushing his mount’s head down he was pulling back on the reins while standing upright, directing his attention to stunned onlookers.

“He is only 19,” the winning trainer Andre Fabre said of his jockey after the stewards warned Barzalona for his actions. Fabre well known as one of the sport’s strict disciplinarians was quick to defend his jockey and may well have been purely elated to win the Derby for first time in 10 attempts, giving France its first win since Empery in 1976.

Mill Reef

It’s 50 years since Mill Reef won the Derby for Ian Balding, whose son Andrew bids to emulate that success with Youth Spirit today.

Mill Reef bounced back from his defeat to Brigadier Gerard in the 2000 Guineas to record an impressive win at Epsom by two lengths from Linden Tree. He remained unbeaten for the rest of the season winning the Eclipse, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Arc. He also went on to sire two Derby winners: Shirley Heights and Reference Point.