IN this publication two weeks ago, Horse Racing Ireland stated they had no plans to change the conditions of the Irish Derby.

In the December 21st edition, the Curragh Racecourse CEO said he was happy with the race distance remaining at 12 furlongs.

Before I start, let’s be absolutely clear on one thing: I am writing about one race only and nothing else.

It is very important. It is about the future of a sport under attack on many fronts. This is about the race I grew up with, looked forward to and attended from a very young age.

The race that brought Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Grundy, Shergar and Montjeu and so many other great champions to one of the great racecourses of the world. The only flat race in Ireland that resonated with all corners of our island and beyond. There is nothing in this for me, so why am I accepting of the opprobrium that is headed my way? Because I care.

I care that the Irish Derby is contemptuously referred to by some as the ‘Ballydoyle Bumper’. I care that we have become so inured to the mediocrity of the last two decades that we have forgotten it was once one of the highlights of the European racing calendar. I care that it was ranked as low as 163 in the list of the World’s Best Races of 2023. I care that the 2023 Epsom Derby runner-up King Of Steel ran in the King Edward VII Stakes next time out and not at the Curragh.

I care that in 2021, Godolphin didn’t run their Epsom winner Adayar at the Curragh, but won the Irish Derby anyway with Hurricane Lane. Coolmore did the same last year, sending their world champion City Of Troy to the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown instead.

I care that there has been no French Derby winner in attendance since 2005, nor an English-trained Epsom Derby winner since 2004.

I care that it is a race to be avoided rather than embraced by potential stallions. I care that Ballylinch Stud stands three French Derby winners and no Irish Derby winner.

I care that all those who agree with me in private (and there are plenty) won’t do so in public. I care that HRI and the Curragh have the gall to set the bar on the floor, slither over it and declare themselves happy.

I care that they treat our press corps and fans as fools. But most of all, I care that once again Ireland’s greatest flat race will not have added a single new fan here, nor set an alarm clock ringing in Asia or Australia.

Track record

Let’s look at the horses attracted to the 2024 Irish Derby they are happy with. No Epsom winner and, as usual nowadays, no Chantilly winner. In fact, no 2024 Group 1 winner at all came into the race or subsequently won at Group 1 level.

The second, third, fourth and fifth never won another race. Four subsequent wins came from three participants: a Group 2, Group 3, listed race and a handicap, all trained in Ballydoyle and all at 12 furlongs-plus.

For €1.25 million, the best the Curragh and HRI could muster were the second and third from Epsom which, to be fair, was an improvement on the norm.

Sport is about winners. No one cares or remembers who came second or third. HRI and the Curragh should hang their heads in shame that this makes them happy. No ambition, no imagination.

The authorities’ de facto position now is to hide behind the European Pattern Committee.

Brian Kavanagh spent years on this Committee and its present chair is Jason Morris, HRI’s Head of Strategy. This is the same Committee that arguably started the Irish Derby’s decline by (rightly) shortening the distance of the French Derby. Good enough for France, but not for Ireland. We are to be sacrificed on the altar of the Eclipse, for that is the only race that would be affected if the Irish Derby followed suit. As it stands, France and England are reaping the rewards and Ireland’s greatest horse race is to be allowed rot.

The Curragh has given up marketing the Irish Derby as a horse race. It is now an ‘occasion’. The banners of previous winners used to fly on the road leading to the racecourse. They disappeared in 2024. Why? Embarrassed perhaps?

Every sport needs heroes and hype to attract new fans. Note to The Curragh: our heroes are the horses. A reported 1,500 people turned up to see City Of Troy train at Southwell, which was more than 10% of those that attended the Irish Derby. Imagine what it would have done to the Curragh audience, if he had turned up to race against Look De Vega and Economics. The aim every year should be to have the winners of the English and French Derbies at the Curragh at the end of June. Anything else should be deemed a failure and the only way it can possibly happen is if the Irish Derby is shortened.

Year in year out, our national and racing press are given nothing to sell. We need to put the horse front and centre and put on a clash of champions, rather than the race of mind-numbing banality that the Irish Derby has been allowed become by those in charge.

The timing of this missive is deliberate. For three years, I have asked the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association to host a debate on the state of the Irish Derby. I just get the run around. HRI and the Curragh refuse to engage with me at all or, more importantly, give a single rational reason why the race should stay as it is.

Why is everyone so afraid of change? By necessity, the Belmont Stakes was temporarily shortened in 2024 and the sky didn’t fall in. If you give a try it for five years and it doesn’t work, you can go back to 12 furlongs and have the added benefit of shutting me up.

Founding fathers

So, as our breeders celebrate our wonderful game tonight at the ITBA National Breeding & Racing Awards, think on this: the founding fathers of our modern thoroughbred stayers, both in Europe and Japan, were two 10-furlong dirt horses - Northern Dancer and Sunday Silence.

With the exception of Harbinger, all those 12-furlong horses Japan has been lauded for buying in the last 30 years, have been abject failures. Only 8.5% of over 2,000 flat foals sold in Goffs and Tattersalls this year were by horses who won over 12 furlongs.

If commercial mare owners don’t want to breed to 12-furlong horses, why would the stallion masters buy them?

However, this is about the sport not the breed. You breeders are the factory that produces our product, but it is not the factory that brings the Ferrari fans to the races. They come to see the red cars run. If they don’t come, you are out of business and so am I.

Talk of moving the date and massaging the entry system is smoke and mirrors. The problem is the distance, period.

Offered a free flight and free entry, the winner of the French Derby still won’t come. I have absolutely no doubt that a 10-furlong Irish Derby run on the same date will become Europe’s three-year-old championship. The winner will become the most valuable middle distance stallion prospect in Europe and the Irish Derby will once again become the go-to race for the best three-year-olds in Europe and one of the great racing attractions of the European high summer.

The three best horses my wife has owned were by Sadler’s Wells, Galileo and Zarak. We much prefer stayers, so any accusation that I want to ‘shorten’ the breed are baseless.

All I want is to return the Irish Derby to the centre of European racing. To once again make it a race owners want to win, rather than run away from. To return it to the prestige that attracted the great racehorses, which in turn will bring us badly needed new fans.

Those of us who are making a living in this sport we love are blessed to be able to do so, but if we are so shortsighted we can’t fix one race that is a pale shadow of its former self, we are ill-serving future generations.

Patrick Cooper is a leading international bloodstock agent. He also buys for and manages smaller racing partnerships with horses running in the all-blue colours of his wife Juliet.