If Madhmoon wins the Derby a week on Saturday, it will be a victory more than half a century in the making. The sturdy colt is trained in Ireland by Kevin Prendergast, whose father, Paddy, prepared winners of all the other English Classics but never quite managed to land the blue riband itself.
“He was second in it several times,” noted Prendergast Jr, aged 86. “They always ran well in it but just never clicked on the day. And that was in the days when you had to get the boat over and travel all over England by box.”
An especially frustrating Derby for Paddy Prendergast was the 1960 version, in which he saddled Alcaeus and Kythnos to be second and third behind the Lester Piggott-ridden St Paddy. Three years later Kevin took out his own licence.
He has since had five Derby runners of his own, though none since 1996. “They all ran well but none of them got placed,” he says, adding that Madhmoon would have a more obvious chance than any colt he has sent to Epsom before.
He was last seen running fourth in the 2,000 Guineas, often regarded as the best Derby trial, and it seems that the first three from that race are likely to be directed elsewhere.
Prendergast, in common with all other spectators, is still musing over the possibility that Madhmoon may have been at a disadvantage in racing up the middle of the track that day, when the first two raced hard against the stands’ rail.
“The horse is going very well, he’s in very good shape, he came out of Newmarket very well,” Prendergast reports. “It’s all systems go to run in the Derby. The way he finished I’d be surprised and disappointed if he didn’t get the extra half-mile.”
Madhmoon is a 14-1 shot for Classic glory but Prendergast points out that the horse has a form to edge it over one rival who is now Derby favourite. “We’ve beaten Broome once and I don’t see why we can’t beat him again,” the trainer says, referring to a Group Two contest at Leopardstown in September. “We beat him by two and a half lengths. And Aidan O’Brien’s other horse that won at Chester, Sir Dragonet. The ground was bottomless, so what will he do if the ground is good to dry at Epsom?”