Six of the best winners of the Irish Derby at the Curragh
Timeform's John Ingles looks back on six of the best winners of the Irish Derby over the last 30 years or so.
Six great Irish Derby winners
SALSABIL (1990) Timeform rating 130
We would probably never have found out how good Salsabil was had she not taken on the colts in the Irish Derby. She’d proven the best of her own sex in the English classics, winning the 1000 Guineas and then following up by five lengths in the Oaks.
The Irish Oaks would have been the more conventional – and easier – option for her next, though as well as being much more valuable, the Irish Derby had the advantage of giving Salsabil an extra two weeks before her next intended start in the King George (though she actually missed that race when pulled out at the overnight stage).
The bold decision set up a fascinating clash with Quest For Fame and Blue Stag, who had been first and second in the Derby at Epsom, and with Belmez who had beaten Quest For Fame in the Chester Vase but missed Epsom because of injury.
Salsabil fully justified the cost of supplementing her for IR £60,000 by producing a fine turn of foot to beat Quest For Fame’s stablemate Deploy (who’d also been supplemented) by three quarters of a length, with Belmez four lengths back in third ahead of Blue Stag and Quest For Fame who was sent off the 5/4 favourite but finished lame.
Salsabil was the first filly to win the Irish Derby for 90 years but, as we’ll see, she wasn’t to be the last.
GENEROUS (1991) 139
The 1991 Irish Derby attracted the smallest field for 54 years but among the six runners were the two outstanding three-year-olds of the season, Generous and Suave Dancer. Both were already top-class Derby winners in their respective countries by the time they clashed at the Curragh. Generous had routed his rivals at Epsom, winning by seven lengths from Marju, with the third, Star of Gdansk, who took him on again in the Irish Derby, another five lengths back in third.
Four days earlier, French-trained Suave Dancer had also created a great impression in winning the Prix du Jockey Club by four lengths, showing a brilliant turn of foot.
The pair dominated the betting at the Curragh, Generous at even money and Suave Dancer at 9/4, and the market proved a good guide to the outcome. With no confirmed front-runner in the field, Alan Munro sent Generous into the lead with about a mile to run and Suave Dancer was the only one able to go with him when he pressed on after the home turn.
Suave Dancer almost got upsides two furlongs out but Generous proved the stouter stayer in the closing stages, running out a decisive three-length winner (it looked slightly less than the official margin) with Star of Gdansk beaten a similar distance in third as he had been at Epsom.
ST JOVITE (1992) 133
Epsom form isn’t always replicated at the Curragh and there was a spectacular demonstration of that when the first two from the 1992 Epsom Derby locked horns again in the Irish version. Dr Devious started the 4/5 favourite at the Curragh, bidding to become the eighth colt in fifteen years to complete the Epsom-Curragh double; Teenoso and Quest For Fame, were the only two Derby winners who had failed in their bids to follow up at the Curragh in that same period. St Jovite had two lengths to find with Dr Devious after rallying to finish runner-up at Epsom.
According to St Jovite’s trainer Jim Bolger, Epsom came a bit too soon for him, but he was evidently spot-on at the Curragh where two pacemakers ensured there was no hanging around for the strong-galloping St Jovite.
With Christy Roche sending St Jovite into a clear lead rounding the home turn, St Jovite maintained a relentless gallop in the straight to win by 12 lengths from Dr Devious, a record margin since the Irish Derby became a major international race, thanks to sponsorship and a boost in prize money, in 1962.
Under firmer conditions than at Epsom, St Jovite broke the race record, even allowing for the fact that Timeform considered the officially recorded time to be around a second and a half too fast.
BALANCHINE (1994) 131
Just four years after Salsabil, another Oaks winner, Balanchine, proved too good for her male rivals in the Irish Derby after being supplemented into the race. Officially still trained in Dubai for her three-year-old campaign – she had spent the winter there - Balanchine was an early success in what were still the experimental stages of the Godolphin operation. Following her short-head defeat in the 1000 Guineas, she then provided her jockey Frankie Dettori with his first British classic winner at Epsom.
Even though Balanchine didn’t have to take on the Epsom Derby winner Erhaab at the Curragh, she still faced some of the top colts of her generation and was only third choice in the betting behind Epsom runner-up King’s Theatre and Alriffa who had finished third in the Prix du Jockey Club, while the Derby third Colonel Collins was another leading contender.
But Balanchine proved herself the best of the classic crop – of either sex – with a top-class effort to win going away by four and a half lengths after cruising into the lead approaching the home straight. King’s Theatre and Colonel Collins fared much the best of her rivals, filling the same positions as they had at Epsom.
Only weeks later, Balanchine’s season was ended by a life-threatening bout of colic but she lived to be 30, passing away only in February of this year.
SINNDAR (2000) 132
Sinndar is one of the best colts to have completed the Derby double at Epsom and the Curragh in the last thirty years. He became the first Irish-trained winner of the race for 16 years when accounting for another top-class colt Sakhee (he too a future Arc winner) by a length, the pair of them five lengths clear.
Sinndar was also a fourth winner of the Derby for his owner the Aga Khan whose previous three Epsom winners, Shergar, Shahrastani and Kahyasi, had all followed up at the Curragh. Sinndar’s connections also had a financial incentive – not that it was probably needed – for bidding to emulate that trio as the Irish Derby sponsors Budweiser offered a one-off million-dollar bonus to mark the millennium if the Kentucky Derby, Epsom Derby or Prix du Jockey Club winner managed to win at the Curragh.
Also eligible, therefore, was the British-trained colt Holding Court who had won at Chantilly and was reckoned to be the main danger to Sinndar who was sent off at 11/10. What looked a race to savour lost much of its interest when the 2000 Guineas winner King’s Best sustained a career-ending injury after about five furlongs, while Holding Court could only finish a disappointing sixth, but that didn’t prevent Sinndar from putting up the best performance in the race since St Jovite as he drew further and further clear in the last furlong and a half to win by nine lengths.
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (2007) 131
Galileo, who was an easy winner at the Curragh when completing the Derby double a year after Sinndar, just misses out on this list but his first-crop son Soldier of Fortune deserves inclusion for a top-class effort of his own when matching Sinndar’s winning margin seven years later.
Soldier of Fortune improved out of all recognition between Epsom and the Curragh. He was a 14/1 chance at Epsom after a narrow success in the Chester Vase and finished fifth to Authorized who was chased home by Soldier of Fortune’s stablemate Eagle Mountain, one of eight runners in the field for Aidan O’Brien.
Authorized’s absence from the Irish Derby (he went for the Eclipse instead) seemed to leave the way clear for Eagle Mountain to go one better as the 6/4 favourite in what looked a substandard renewal beforehand. But as Eagle Mountain was coming under pressure two furlongs out after being forced wide on the home turn, Soldier of Fortune hit the front and stretched clear in magnificent style.
While the soft ground might have accentuated his superiority to some extent, Soldier of Fortune was a top-class winner on the day, setting a standard which only Fame And Glory, another Ballydoyle winner two years later, has come close to matching since. Not for the first – or last – time, O’Brien trained the first three home, with Alexander of Hales pipping Eagle Mountain for second.
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