RACING AHEAD TO BETTER TIES:
Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikh Hamdan and Princess Haya talk to Queen Elizabeth on the sidelines of the Investec Derby Festival in England on Saturday. —
epsom — Padraig Beggy won the Epsom Derby with his first ride in the race delivering a blistering finish on outsider Wings of Eagles to give trainer Aidan O’Brien his sixth win on Saturday.
Beggy — tasting victory for just the fifth time since 2015 — brought Wings of Eagles from the clouds to deny the most fancied of O’Brien’s six runners Cliffs of Moher with favourite Cracksman, ridden by Frankie Dettori, third.
“My first ride, but you always have a chance, don’t worry about the price with an Aidan O’Brien runner,” said Beggy on his way back to the winner’s enclosure.
“I had a bit of bad luck in running but I got there at the right time.
“Still my best furlong was the last furlong and that is the one that counts. “I’d nearly given up on the big days, but Aidan O’Brien has made it happen. “It’s happy days.” O’Brien, who has won five of the six classics run so far in the British Isles this season, couldn’t praise Beggy high enough.
“Padraig is a brilliant rider, a world class rider,” eulogised O’Brien. “He is strong and has a great mind and tactically astute.”
Cliffs of Moher had looked certain to deliver jockey Ryan Moore’s third winner in the blue riband of the flat after he collared Dettori on Cracksman entering the final furlong. However, Beggy who had had only two of the 18 runners behind him with three furlongs to race, came with an unstoppable burst of accleration to take the richest ever prize in English racing of £931,000 (1m euros, $1.2m) by three quarters of a length.
“I couldn’t be happier,” said 49-year-old O’Brien. “I thought he was a very good horse last year when he ran a good race in France.
“Cliffs of Moher is a bit of a baby still and his next run should be very interesting.” —