DERBY DEBT
Eminent can repay Meade for Guineas flop
Trainer Martyn Meade say his faith in Saturday’s investec Derby hope eminent has not been dented by the colt’s defeat in the 2,000 Guineas at newmarket.
The son of Frankel carried huge expectation into the first Classic of the season after winning the Craven Stakes over the same course and distance in a blistering time.
But in the Guineas an unexpected slow early pace proved disastrous for long-striding eminent and jockey Jim Crowley as favourite Churchill streaked home.
Stuck out wide behind outsider Law and Order early in the race, eminent could finish only sixth and did not run through the line with the power he had shown in the Craven Stakes when Crowley struggled to pull him up.
‘i was acutely disappointed. it would have been much better if he had been placed,’ said Meade. ‘But we have to put it behind us.
‘We were expecting a stronger pace but we got behind the 100-1 chance and my horse was climbing up in the air.
‘He was held up with nowhere to go. it wasn’t good. We were beaten three and a half lengths by Churchill and, if you take him out of the race, we were just over two lengths behind the placed horses and we were pulling up at the time.
‘ There was no point Jim giving him a couple of taps when he couldn’t win just to make up a place or two. That has paid off and he has come back bouncing.’
Meade (right) has always maintained that eminent would be better at distances further than a mile and he was happy with way the big colt with a big stride coped with the epsom undulations when taken to work around Tattenham Corner last week.
Meade, part- owner of eminent with new Zealander Sir Peter Vela who also owned 2001 Melbourne Cup winner ethereal, said: ‘Providing we can switch him off, which i’m pretty sure we will be able to do, we can use his turn of foot. He is a very able horse and very flexible.’
Considering the stud fee of unbeaten superhorse Frankel is £125,000 — and the frenzied interest in the first offspring he sired — eminent’s 150,000gns price tag was relatively cheap when he was bought in October 2015 in a deal concluded after he had initially been led out of the Tattersalls sales ring unsold. Meade, 69, admits he feared at first that he might have bought a dud but such thoughts had been put to bed well before the colt made a winning debut in September. The trainer, who pilots his own helicopter to the races, has been involved in training racehorses since the early 1970s, but for much of that time he combined that with a lucrative business career.
While he remains executive chairman of his investment company and admits he is a deal junkie, his main focus has been on horses for five years since buying newmarket’s Sefton Lodge Stables, a yard once housing horses trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil.
Meade, whose owners include england fast bowler Jimmy anderson, also purchased nearby Snailwell Stud a year and a half ago.
if eminent wins on Saturday, he will be perfect stallion material. now that would be good business.