John Gosden rates Azmeel’s chance in Derby
If the road to h**l is supposed to be paved with good intentions then the old pathway across the Epsom Downs from the parade ring to the Derby start was strewn with chances lost.
These days Derby runners may face a somewhat daunting canter along the full extent of the Derby course, following a green ribbon of turf along the home straight that is flanked either side by a kaleidoscope of colour, but John Gosden can cast his mind back nearly 40 years to when the test of temperament was all the more severe.
Then horses would be led in parade order across the Downs, past the cauldron of noise on the infield. It was a journey that turned many promising colts into a four-legged hand grenade with the pin three-parts removed.
His most vivid memory is of the day, as assistant trainer to Vincent O’Brien, he escorted Lester Piggott and The Minstrel before their Derby win in 1977. Twenty years later Gosden won the race in his own right with Benny The Dip and he has an interesting candidate this year with Azmeel whom Gosden is confident can handle the pre-race tensions.
“He’s not bad,” said Gosden, a man whose own outward calm perhaps transmits to his horses. “He’s out of a King’s Best mare – he can just break out a little on his neck but that’s his nature – and I think he’ll be fine. And it’s not like the old days when we used to go through the gypsy encampment. They used to scream and shout over the rails. I remember leading Lester down on The Minstrel and I couldn’t believe what they were telling me to do with the horse. There’s no doubt that that was much tougher on a horse than now.”
Azmeel has proved himself to be tough enough for what many jockeys describe as the roughest race of the year. Perhaps in need of the run when he was second to Chabal in the Classic Trial at Sandown in April he turned out again the following month for the Dee Stakes at Chester.
Stable jockey William Buick was suspended and Frankie Dettori had to overcome interference at halfway and then pick his way through the field to beat Dancing David by a half-length that was probably value for more. “He was very much in need of the race going to Sandown,” Gosden pointed out. “I made no secret of that, I’d had a difficult winter with him, and he’d very much blew up at the one-and-a-half pole. But the winner won nicely that day but he looked a fit horse.
“He came on and Frankie won on him in the Dee. The race wasn’t really run to suit – and Hayley [Turner] was having trouble with her colt [Prompter]. My horse lugged in, got distanced out the back and then he got interfered with, with five to run. So, just when we were trying to creep into the race, we got taken out of it a bit again. What I liked about it is that he split horses and won in a nice style, going away, maybe a shade cosily.”
Gosden knows what is required from a colt to win the Derby and, like many trainers, spends each spring watching morning work hoping to see the vital signs. Thus far the indicators from Azmeel are looking right. “He’s done well since then and he’s pleased me in his work at home,” Gosden said. “Handling the bends at Chester is always a help when you come to Epsom. The one thing you want in a Derby is a horse with natural speed to get you into the position you want to be, that has a nice cruising speed and also needs to stay the trip.”
Each Derby tends to fall into one of two categories; those races that have an obvious leading contender and those dubbed “the most open race for years” and Gosden pointed out: “People always say it’s an open race. The standard is, in my opinion, probably pretty high. And probably one horse is going to go and win it well and everyone will turn round and say ‘I told you so’ afterwards. I think Aidan holds all the aces and it’s just how he plays his cards.”
Gosden hopes that he has another trump card to play in the Investec Oaks with Gertrude Bell, a filly bred and owned by his wife, Rachel Hood.
Gertrude Bell gained valuable experience when she won the Cheshire Oaks and the trainer is reassured by the fact that this is one owner who knows the score. “She understands. She’s been around long enough to see some mornings when I walk in after first or second lot and she only has to look into my eyes to know something isn’t right,” he said.
The filly is named after a pioneering woman who graduated from Oxford in the 1890s and helped to establish the modern state of Iraq. Gosden just hopes that the horse can follow a similar path to success.
John Gosden's Derby record: 1992 Muhtarram (4th); 1992 Pollen Count (16th); 1994 Linney Head (10th); 1995 Tamure (2nd), Presenting (3rd); 1996 Shantou (3rd); 1997 BENNY THE DIP (wonm); 1999 Glamis (6th), 2003 Summerland (11th), 2004 Percussionist (4th); 2007 Lucarno (4th); 2009 Debussy (8th).
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