COMMON consensus seems to be that Sovereign was not the best horse in the Irish Derby. That Padraig Beggy set efficient fractions, and that he got an easy lead.

He may well have got an easy lead, but don’t discount the possibility that the winner was the best horse in the race on the day anyway. Sovereign finished eight and a half lengths clear of Norway, last year’s Zetland Stakes winner who had the ideal tow, just behind the winner, and who was half the price of his stable companion going into the race. And Anthony Van Dyck was probably going as fast as he wanted to go through the early throes.