Derby Dream for Moore as Workforce shatters record

Three furlongs from the finish in the Epsom Derby the bookmakers were salivating as At First Sight, Aidan O’Brien’s pacemaker and 100-1 shot in the betting seemed set to hang on to his long time lead.

His closest pursuer, Henry Cecil’s Bullet Train, carrying Prince Khalid Abdulla’s first colours, appeared to have shot his bolt, unresponsive to Tom Queally’s urgings.

For a couple of seconds the bookmakers’ dream of a successful, friendless outsider looked set to come true. At First Sight was ten lengths clear of the field and showing no signs of stopping. Only Workforce, carrying Abdulla’s second colours, was making any progress. Ryan Moore had asked Sir Michael Stoute’s colt, a 6-1 chance in the Derby betting, to quicken and was getting an impressive response.

Having spent much of the race quietly ridden towards the rear of the field, Workforce alone emerged from the chasing group, gaining ground on the re-galvanised At First Sight. The rest of the posse, including the big guns from Ballydoyle, Jan Vermeer the 9-4 favourite in the Derby betting and Midas Touch, looked to be merely paddling.

Workforce seemed oblivious to the infamous contours of the Derby course and took the lead a furlong from home. Showing none of the greenness that dashed his hopes in the Dante, he powered past the courageous At First Sight, winning by an extremely impressive seven lengths.

At First Sight was quite some pacemaker. Not only did he finish second under Jamie Heffernan but Workforce’s winning time of 2 minutes 31.33 seconds shattered Lammtarra’s long standing Derby record by only two hundredths short of a second. There may have been only twelve runners but two of them didn’t hang about.

Godolphin’s Rewilding, the 9-2 second favourite in the Derby betting ridden by Frankie Dettori finished third, half a length behind At First Sight. The Frankie factor had probably contributed to Rewilding being heavily backed on the day, in from 6-1 to 9-2.

The strongly fancied favourite and first choice of Johnny Murtagh, Jan Vermeer, was four lengths fourth with Midas Touch, the other fancied Ballydoyle horse a head behind him.

Typically, after the race, Aidan O’Brien said that he was pleased with his horses. In reality, At First Sight had made fools of the best brains at Ballydoyle by finishing second, four and a half lengths ahead of his more highly rated stable companions.

Murtagh reported after the race that he had never been happy with the way Jan Vermeer was going. The colt’s chances cannot have been helped by the loss of two shoes during the race. Colm O’Donoghue commented that course simply didn’t suit his horse, Midas Touch.

For winning jockey, Ryan Moore, it was a dream that came true. The previous day he had won his first Classic aboard a supplemented late entry into the Investec Oaks, the Ed Dunlop trained Snow Fairy. In a relatively rough race of many more runners, he had kept the filly out of the action, well behind the traffic problems and emerged from a similarly unpromising position to steal victory on the line in what was described as a brilliant ride. When asked after the Oaks if it felt special to have won his first Classic he, in typical Moore fashion, said no, as it wasn’t the Derby.

24 hours later the usually impassive Moore had tears in his eyes when asked to describe the manner of his Derby victory. His mother was interviewed and confirmed his long term dream of winning the race.
Workforce’s record breaking victory was all the more impressive as it was only his third start. He had been one of the talking horses prior to the Dante at York but was squarely beaten by Aidan O’Brien’s Cape Blanco in the five runner race, hanging badly and finishing with the bit pulled half way through his mouth. Sir Michael had added a cross noseband for the Derby to help prevent a similar scenario.

Prior to the race, one BBC commentator noted that if he couldn’t handle York, what chance did Workforce stand of coping with the unique demands of Epsom? Another mentioned that he had a rather unfortunate head. In the paddock he was certainly no match for the magnificent Jan Vermeer in the looks department.

With his ability unchallenged but question marks over his maturity and ability to handle both the Epsom track and the big occasion, Workforce had slipped to third in the Epsom Derby ante post betting after his Dante win. He clearly had adequate support on the day to maintain that position to the off.
Not only was there no shortage of drama on the day but there was plenty of action in the ante post Derby betting markets.

Aidan O’Brien’s supposed wonder horse, St Nicholas Abbey, had been favourite for as long as anyone could remember following his effortless win in the Racing Post Trophy. A week before the Derby St Nicholas Abbey’s odds drifted dramatically from clear favourite at 7-4 to 3-1 as reports of a lack lustre piece of work at Ballydoyle’s gallops on Friday 27th May had left Johnny Murtagh undecided as to his Derby mount.

Bookmakers announced strengthening support for Jan Vermeer, making him the 11-4 favourite with William Hill. Paddy Power, Betfred and Blue Square followed suit making Vermeer the 5-2 favourite in the Derby betting with St Nicholas Abbey second favourite at 3-1.

On Tuesday, 1st June, news broke that O’Brien had found that St Nicholas Abbey had a physical problem, a small amount of muscle damage in his hind quarter and would not be running.

It wasn’t just the punters on Workforce that made serious money in the Derby betting, the Ballydoyle favourite layers made a small fortune too.
 

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