Cardiff owners hoping their horse springs Epsom shock
YOU can tell we’re in the midst of a crazy summer of sport when two brothers from Cardiff stand a great chance of winning Saturday’s Epsom Derby with a horse no-one else wanted.
Guy and Huw Leach, from Cardiff, together with their friend Roger Devlin, are ready to battle with the Maktoum millions and the Ballydoyle battalions in pursuit of the greatest prize in horse racing.
And they send their horse to the iconic Downs with as much expectation as they have hope.
Pyledriver looked no more than a bitpart player when he lined up at Royal Ascot less than a fortnight ago. But not for the first time, he proved the market wrong as he powered his way into Classic reckoning.
In what was a surreal Royal meeting played out in front of empty stands, Pyledriver was one of six runners in the King Edward VII Stakes, a race widely known as the Ascot Derby. The race is usually run two weeks after the actual Derby itself, but because of the delayed start to the season caused by the coronavirus emergency, it became a key trial for the Epsom showpiece.
And he duly belied his odds of 18-1, storming clear up the straight to record a two-length verdict over Arthur’s Kingdom.
Within minutes Guy Leach was appearing on national television - via Zoom - to discuss whether or not he had a Derby dream.
He did. Next stop Epsom.
“It’s been a hell of a whirlwind, I’m still pinching myself,” he told us.
“He’s in the race, but you have to be realistic. Aidan O’Brien will have three or four contenders, plus there is a Guineas winner in there.
“But he’s been impressive this year and he deserves to take his chance.”
What makes this tale even more remarkable is the fact that Pyledriver’s background suggests he has no business being anywhere near a Derby.
He was bred by the owners from a mare they had bought from France called La Pyle. She ran in five hurdle races in Britain - never went close to winning – and in fact beat just five horses home in all that time.
The trio decided it was time to cut their losses and put her up for auction, changing their minds only when the late Kevin Mercer, of Usk Valley Stud just outside Abergavenny, looked at her pedigree and thought there might be some potential. He encouraged them to breed from her.
Pyledriver was her first foal.
But his bloodline – his sire Harbour Watch never ran beyond the age of two – put off prospective buyers. When Pyledriver was offered for sale as a yearling, no-one wanted to know, not even for £10,000.
So Leach, Leach and Devlin kept him. Lucky them.
So far in his six runs he has accrued career earnings of almost £95,000, with more than two-thirds of that coming courtesy of his win at Ascot.
“This is a one-in-a-million chance,” added Guy Leach, who will watch the race from home because of the travel restrictions in place in Wales.
“He failed to get a bid at the sales ring, although his breeding on his dam’s side is better than some people imagine.”
Pyledriver, who runs in the name of Leach’s firm Knox & Wells - a Cardiffbased building contractor - has spent most of his young life proving the doubters wrong.
For his debut last year at Salisbury he was sent off at 50-1. Yet he took that 13-runner affair by three-quarters of a length, with his trainer William Muir later admitting he had backed him at 66s.
He won once more in 2019, before returning to action this season in a Group 3 contest at Kempton. He was an unconsidered 40-1 chance in a field of nine, but finished best of all to take second close home.
The win at the Royal meeting – run without royalty this year – has set things up for this weekend.
Pyledriver is a general 16-1 chance for Epsom glory. He is sixth in the betting yet is double the price of Mogul, who he left trailing back in fourth at Ascot.
So there you have it. A Welsh-born horse, with Welsh owners, who keeps proving the bookies wrong and who is trading at 16-1 for the Derby.
Don’t say you haven’t been warned...