All The Way kept up his gallop for a most creditable fifth place, in front of Glamis, Saffron Walden, Compton Admiral and Dubai Millennium.Oath was a first Derby runner for Salman, a Saudi Arabian prince whose horses race worldwide under the Thoroughbred Corporation banner. But once Oath was running, I knew he would take me to the line.”A length and a half behind Daliapour, Beat All gave the American rider Gary Stevens a fine Derby debut as he came fast and late from off the pace to snatch third place on the line from Housemaster. I held on to him as I went to challenge Daliapour; as far as I was concerned he was the horse I had to beat and I did not want mine to risk hanging into him down the camber. He rather lost his action on the turn off the hill, but once I gave him a slap in the straight he was soon balanced again and picked up really well in the straight. He has a lot of speed and it is easy to get a position on him. Fallon glanced behind him as he approached the line, just to check, but all was well, and his grin glowed as bright as his silks.The 34-year-old Irishman’s career has taken a distinct upward turn since he joined Cecil’s powerful stable “If you have the horse, you can win these races,” he said “Oath was always travelling well.
A furlong out, Fallon, his lime green and white silks and the colt’s distinctive white bridle almost luminous in the dull grey light of a chilly early summer day, had Oath in overdrive. Fallon had made stealthy progress down the hill on Oath and, though the colt wavered for a stride or two on the turn, he soon had Daliapour in his sights.The tussle between the two game colts was resolved after a dozen strides. But the Aga Khan’s runner was towing his nemesis in his slipstream. The brave effort by the leader, who led Salford Express around racing’s most famous bend, lasted a furlong into the home straight before the bigger guns began to close.Daliapour, who had always been in the first three, ranged into the lead a quarter of a mile from home, with the French rider Gerald Mosse trying to exploit his guaranteed stamina to the full.
Fallon was later fined pounds 1,000 for his action, which deprived racegoers in the cheaper enclosures of a close view of the colt, but with a first prize of pounds 611,450 by then safely in the owner Ahmed Salman’s keeping, it is unlikely that the jockey will be out of pocket.Fallon kept Oath well placed behind the leading bunch, and clear of some scrimmaging, as the field turned to make the descent towards Tattenham Corner, as the local runner All The Way attempted to live up to his name. Earlier in the season he sent out Wince to win the 1,000 Guineas and, but for the intervention of Island Sands, who beat Enrique by a neck in the 2,000 Guineas, it would have been a clean sweep for the stable at the top of Warren Hill in Newmarket.
Oath, a neat, hard-trained rubber ball of a horse, was restive in the pre-race parade in front of the grandstands and broke ranks half-way through to canter to post early. The trainer now has the best Epsom record of any working, having won his sixth Oaks the previous day with Ramruma. The victory was a first Derby in just four attempts by Fallon, the champion jockey of the past two seasons, and a fourth for Cecil after Slip Anchor, Reference Point and Commander In Chief. The 5-1 favourite Dubai Millennium came in ninth of the 16 runners.
The bonny little bay colt, a well-fancied 13-2 chance, beat Daliapour by a length and three-quarters, with Beat All third and Housemaster fourth. Oath won the 220th Derby here yesterday in splendid style to make it three English Classics out of four this season for Henry Cecil and Kieren Fallon. THERE’S MAGIC in the water at Warren Place, you’d swear. He’s a strange old soul, is Motty, but unlike the hosts, he’s always great value.. Then, when the final scores were announced, he seemed almost disappointed that he had not won by more, and that there was no sign of a podium on to which he might climb.
Every right answer – and there were plenty – saw his shoulders relax and a little smirk playing about his lips. Motty, bless him, seemed to be treating it like the final of Mastermind.Every question caused his little brow to furrow in desperate concentration. You have a vague idea what it entails, and you are pretty sure that it is none too pleasant, but it is only when it is actually happening to you that the true magnitude of its awfulness becomes apparent.Last week’s show, for example, included a sports quiz – they get our licence money, remember, for coming up with ideas like this – with a panel comprising two well-known sporting celebrities, John Motson and John Inverdale, and also Annabel Croft.The questions were predictably inane, but there was one, no doubt unintentional, source of entertainment. There is no higher praise.Watching Hale and Pace’s h&p bbc (BBC1), on the other hand, is rather like being garrotted. It would be a disservice to Winterbottom’s witty and impeccable delivery to relate it here.Suffice to say that for the handful who saw it, it probably covered a month’s subscription to Sky Digital all by itself.
