There were 15 Epsom Derbys run between Secreto (1984) and Sinndar, and there was no Irish-trained winner. Ireland simply didn’t win the Derby in those days. By the time they got to the start of the Vodafone signage, however, Sinndar was in front, and the somersaults in your head had begun. The deficit was a length when they passed the furlong pole, a half-length when they passed the green double-decker bus in the infield, a neck when they passed the red one. Like a golfer, watching his ball in the air after it has left the blade of his nine-iron, alternating his gaze between the in-flight Top Flight and the flag in the middle of the green, and knowing that it is good. You had to look alternately between the horses and the winning post to see how much time the Irish horse had left. The aerial view gave you an unusual perspective. ![]() The press stand at Epsom was so high in the stands in those days that you could have been in the Goodyear blimp. Sinndar arrested the deficit, and set about clawing it back. Sakhee went for home from outside the two-furlong pole, and went fully two and a half lengths clear, but that was as far as he ever got. Start of a change of fortune for the IrishĪdd that will to win to his pace and his class and his stamina, and you have a potent force that is almost impossible to repel. He looked destined for fourth place entering the final furlong that day, but got up to win by a head. His trainer had told us about it, and we had seen it on his last run as a juvenile in the G1 National Stakes at The Curragh. Sakhee was travelling better, Richard Hills was just nudging along whereas Johnny was driving, but you knew all about Sinndar’s will to win. Johnny actually pulled his stick out, and there was that horrible nano-second during which you thought that the John Oxx-trained colt was going to be swallowed up by the unforgiving pack and finish seventh. They quickened at the three-furlong pole, and Sinndar was caught flat-footed. Johnny Murtagh always had the Aga Khan’s horse in the perfect position: wide and prominent around the first right-handed kink, three off the rail and just behind the leaders as they started to wheel left-handed. That set the tempo for the race, and that suited the stamina-laden Sinndar down to the ground. Kingsclere seemed to think that the winning post was at the top of the hill, before you sweep down around Tattenham Corner, not at the bottom after you have negotiated the hills and the cambers, and he went like a sprinter through the first three furlongs. If you lean far enough and hard enough to your right and hold your breath for long enough, you can will a horse home in the Epsom Derby. You think that you can’t influence a horse in a finish when you are not on his back, but you can. ![]() Like, where were you when Sinndar won the Epsom Derby? At the top of the stands, willing him home with every sinew of my body, that’s where. So it’s My favourite racehorse, it’s a personal thing. Photo: Martin Lynch/Ĭontinuing TRC’s ‘My Favorite Racehorse’ series, author and broadcaster Donn McClean, chief racing writer with The Sunday Times in Ireland, explains his special affection for the 2000 Arc and dual Derby winner Sinndar. ![]() Iron resolve: Sinndar and Johnny Murtagh get the better of Sakhee in the 2000 Epsom Derby.
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