Revolution needed to stop Irish Derby decline - so make it a mile and a quarter

Here's a question. What's the link between the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, the Hyland Racecolours Toorak Handicap, the Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare and the Kikuka-Sho?

Think about it, while I quote HRI chief executive Suzanne Eade, who invoked an oft-repeated mantra when addressing a parliamentary committee last week: "Ireland is a global leader in horseracing and breeding."

In many respects, it's a justifiable boast. And timely, one might think, in the build-up to Ireland's 'premier Classic', a race with a wonderful history and a distinguished roll of honour, hosted by a splendid racecourse lately redeveloped at a cost of €81.2 million.

Many of us have known the Irish Derby as a sporting and social highlight of the Irish summer. That was then. Now, it is an increasingly inconsequential event in the hierarchy of major races.

We know that because the answer to my question is that the 2021 Irish Derby occupied joint-94th position in the 2021 Longines worldwide rankings, sharing that place with, among others, the 25th-ranked Australian race, the 18th-ranked US race, and the 11th-ranked Japanese race, that country's version of the St Leger incidentally.

Sixty years ago the first running of the 1866-inaugurated Irish Derby under the Sweeps banner steered the race out of a domestic backwater into the mainstream of international racing.

The glories of the Sweeps era are illustrated by the dual Derby exploits of Santa Claus, Nijinsky, Grundy, The Minstrel, Shirley Heights, Troy and Shergar. Perhaps the race sometimes felt like an act of coronation for an Epsom-derived heir presumptive, but it had status, distinction and prestige. The Sweeps sponsorship drew outstanding Derby winners to the Curragh, one of whom, Sir Ivor, was famously beaten by the Lester Piggott-ridden Ribero in 1968.

Gradually the excitement and glamour ebbed away, although the allure of the race remained powerful for major international owners and leading European trainers.

The advent of the Budweiser sponsorship in 1986 drew the two strands together again. Mike Roarty and his team introduced some American razzmatazz and Irish Derby day was rejuvenated.

It was an occasion for everyone. It was a seasonal highlight for regular racegoers, an abundant and thriving species at a time when the sport still enjoyed a high profile in the weekend entertainment listings. The metropolitan socialites turned out in force, well-heeled, expensively hatted. Kildare locals, proud of an event that put their county on the map, mixed with the once-a-year trippers, busloads from pubs and clubs all over Ireland, trainloads too, all cheerfully knocking back pints of the sponsor's brew.

Sometimes we moaned about the export of the big prize, by which criterion an imperious St Jovite in 1992 was the only bright spot between Law Society in 1985 and shock 1996 winner Zagreb. Yet the race grew in stature through the 1990s and there was even a heady period when it threatened to usurp the Epsom prototype, hailed by the cognoscenti as a more meaningful test of midsummer form at a fairer track.

It became a key race in assessing the relative merits of the Derby and Prix du Jockey-Club. In beating the subsequent Arc winner Suave Dancer in 1991, Generous established that tone. Two years later Commander In Chief triumphed over Hernando. In 1995 Andre Fabre's Winged Love emphatically reversed Chantilly form with Celtic Swing.

The decade ended with Chantilly winners Dream Well and Montjeu doubling up at the Curragh, while the next five years gave us five home-trained winners, including two of outstanding merit in Sinndar and Galileo.

That's the nostalgia bit. The modern-day reality is stark. In the past ten years the Irish Derby has attracted a paltry 13 overseas challengers: a dozen from Britain and one from France. Of the 13, three came for the 2018 race, another three last year.

Forgettable winners have outnumbered the memorable, with any genuine stars sent off at odds to reflect a paucity of opposition. Camelot was 1-5 in 2012, Australia 1-8 in 2014, with Harzand at least a more backable 4-6 in 2016.

By and large we can attribute the fall-off in international participation to the dominance assumed by Ballydoyle and Coolmore in the mile-and-a-half division from the late 1990s onwards, although that was not the only factor. Aidan O'Brien's seven in a row between 2006 and 2012 took place in the aftermath of a 2005 move by the French, changing the distance to the Prix du Jockey-Club in response to evolving fashions in the breeding industry.

These days, a stand-alone Irish Derby winner is an unappealing stallion prospect in commercial terms. An Irish-trained Epsom winner may not damage his reputation by taking in the race as a lap of honour but there is no longer any incentive for a British-trained winner to travel to the Curragh, while the French just stay at home.

On Saturday the Derby third takes on an Oaks winner. I've read it described as "a mouthwatering prospect". I guess it would be if you hadn't had a drink for a while.

What's the solution? In a letter to the Irish Field this year, BBA Ireland director Patrick Cooper made a radical proposal to halt the race's slide into insignificance.

Cooper suggested taking a leaf out of the French book. Reduce the distance to ten furlongs. With that single action, you tempt the Derby winner to drop in trip to enhance his appeal as a putative stallion, you encourage the various Guineas winners and other high-class milers to have a go, you offer the Classic generation an alternative to the Eclipse, and you attract the French again.

Now you have a proper midseason championship race, one you can market. Sweeps and Budweiser did it before, making the Irish Derby a genuinely significant horse race with a proper sense of occasion. It can be done. In fact, it must be done; joint-94th is not good enough for a global leader.

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