My Favourite Derby: Mike Cattermole looks back on a memorable Epsom moment
Our series continues and for Mike Cattermole his favourite Derby was the 1984 edition in which El Gran Senor famously went down narrowly to Secreto.
What's your favourite Derby and why? Email racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and we will publish them in the build-up to the great race.
My first visit to the Derby? I’ll never forget it.
I had watched the Derby on TV for the first time in 1978 (Shirley Heights) but seeing Epsom, in the flesh, was almost a shock. It was just a crazy track, like a crooked rollercoaster, and the camber from the outside to the inside rail was the thing that got me the most. Just extraordinary.
You knew that all the turns and gradients represented a unique and demanding test for the thoroughbred.
I was first there for the 1984 renewal, as a regular racegoer, just before I joined Timeform. Little did I know that I was about to witness one of the most dramatic finishes to the world’s most well-known Flat race.
Having not yet graduated to the media ranks, there was nothing special about my viewing position, which was on the inside of the course and just beyond the winning post. It was packed and although I didn’t have the clearest of views, it was good enough.
So, the brilliant El Gran Senor, trained by Vincent O’Brien, had just won the 2,000 Guineas, a vintage one, as things turned out. The horses behind him, Chief Singer, Lear Fan and Rainbow Quest all went on to enjoy stellar careers.
Yet El Gran Senor had outclassed them all and was 8/11 favourite to take the Derby in his brilliant stride.
Seeing him cruising down the hill from the three furlong marker, with Pat Eddery sitting motionless in the Robert Sangster colours, promised much more of the same. Especially as Secreto, who looked his only danger, had been hard at it under an energetic Christy Roche.
This was many years before Betfair and you could not imagine any outcome other than a comfortable win.
But when Pat, who had even taken a cheeky glance over his shoulder, finally pressed the button, the response was not an instant change of gear at all. He went ahead, maybe by half a length, but Secreto wouldn’t go away and battled back to grab it in a desperate photo finish.
Like most, I couldn’t believe what had happened.
I don’t think Pat could, either, and he later blamed himself for getting there too soon. Later, we heard the story about Lester Piggott walking past the disconsolate Senor connections (Lester’s previous employers) and mischievously quipping: “Do you miss me?”
El Gran Senor later went on to win the Irish Derby – showing he stayed the trip all right - but we never saw Secreto again and he was despatched off to stud in Kentucky with a huge $40m valuation.
He was trained by David O’Brien, Vincent’s son, who looked set then for a highly successful career. For all his talent, it turned out to be not for him and he bowed out completely just a few years later, heading off to buy a vineyard in France.
Pat went on to win the Derby the third time just six years later on Quest For Fame. Sadly, neither El Gran Senor, nor Secreto, both sons of Northern Dancer, made much of an impact at stud but I and many others will never forget the drama they served up on Derby Day 1984.
Also in the series...
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