WHEN I was an eight-year-old boy, school finished at 3pm, and the Derby was run on a Wednesday.
This combination meant that on 3rd June 1977, on a beautifully sunny day, I set sail from Higham Primary School gates at 3.15pm determined to get home to watch my favourite horse at the time, a flashy chestnut with four white socks named The Minstrel, win the Derby.
Now, luckily for me, the school had been built at the top of a hill, and running back home to my house in Lower Higham was akin to racing in a five furlong sprint at Epsom; downhill, with the wind behind me I made it in time to turn the TV set on, to witness The Minstrel and Lester Piggott upsides Hot Grove and Willie Carson in a ding-dong battle inside the final two furlongs.
That 1977 contest is my very first recollection of the Derby. And it still lives long in my memory. Willie Carson head down aboard Hot Grove next to the rails pumping away to keep his horse galloping to the line, while a relative giant in comparison to Carson, Piggott stalking in behind, just seemingly biding his time, ready to pounce.
But then, just before the two-furlong marker, Piggott’s body language changes as he gets more animated in the saddle and pulls the persuader through to administer one of what would ultimately be 18 smacks of the whip to The Minstrel. But still Hot Grove and Carson pump and bump along in front.
It isn’t until well inside the final furlong that the white nose of The Minstrel inches in front much to the chagrin of Willie Carson and Piggott finally gets a tune out of his mount to land the 198th Derby.
In subsequent interviews both Carson and Piggott have had lots to say about that race.
Willie Carson has said that:
“I was riding a glorified hurdler and Piggott was on a champion”
While Piggott has said:
“No horse I ever rode showed more courage in a finish than The Minstrel that day.”
Now, 42 years later, I am privileged to be sat next to Willie Carson at the draw for 240th Investec Derby in the Epsom Weighing Room.
It’s 40 years since Willie won his first Derby; 30 since he created history winning it aboard Nashwan and 25 years since Erhaab came steaming up the inside of the track to win him his fourth and final Investec Derby.
Minute in statue he may be, but Carson is a giant of the turf.
I can’t help but ask about that 1977 race, one which along with Red Rum’s antics in the early and mid-1970s helped frame my lifelong love affair with racing.
“What do you remember about that 1977 Derby Willie?” I ask.
“I remember upon pulling up Lester Piggott telling me I was bugger because I made him work too hard for victory aboard The Minstrel!” he continued:
“We had hatched a plan to make it a real test of stamina and to kick on a long way out to try and get the potential non stayers like The Minstrel at it a long way out, and it almost worked”
I ask him of his four Derby winners which does he consider to be the best? In typical unorthodox fashion Carson tells me there are four different answers to that question.
“The best Derby day winner was Troy in 1979, he won by 7 lengths and beat 7 subsequent Group 1 winners that day. The bravest winner was Henbit as he went wrong during the race and it was just sheer guts and adrenalin that kept him going. The best ride I ever gave any horse in ANY race ever at Epsom was Erhaab as he had to weave through on the inside, with time running out. I was so tired after that race – I was 53 then – that I couldn’t even raise my hands & body to celebrate! And the best horse was Nashwan. He had won the Guineas, went onto win the Eclipse and the King George . I went too soon on him really in the Derby. I asked him to win the race at the two-furlong marker as I thought I only had Cacoethes and Greville Starkey to beat. They were on my inside and I saw Greville move his hands just before the two-furlong marker – and I remember thinking ‘here’s my chance to kill him’, just like a boxer knows when his opponent is wobbling and ready to fall.”
Then we shake hands and Willie makes his way to the stage behind the draw machine along with Michael Hills and Racing TV presenter Tom Stanley.
Great to see Willie Carson at @EpsomRacecourse for the #InvestecDerby draw
️ We caught up with Willie earlier this morning
Full interview, including his 'best ever ride at Epsom' via the link https://t.co/BYVuVxJNLC pic.twitter.com/XoKkSYXHGC
— Unibet Racing (@UnibetRacing) May 30, 2019
First frivolities of the morning; we can’t see Willie behind the machine!
Panic to find a box for Willie to stand on ensues – only minutes to go before the live draw at 11am. Finally, we find one and all is well again.
Then, I receive a message saying that Telecaster has drawn stall one, which is odd because I’m live at the event and we haven’t drawn anything yet?!
I show the text and a twitter image to the officials who then make several phone calls. Apparently, the automatic draw machine was not disabled and had generated stall numbers. Luckily, we’ve caught that early and we kick on – like Willie did several times in the Derby itself, with the draw.
Tom Stanley does a cracking job and our two Derby winning jockeys, Willie and Michalel Hills, start the draw. Soon Willie Carson is telling us all that no horse drawn in stall number 2 has ever won the Derby. Then immediately having said this Michael draws stall 2 for the fancied Telecaster! Unibet push his price out from 9/2 to 6/1 as a direct result. Favourite Sir Dragonet is given stall 13 of 13 and again we push him out from 11/4 to 10/3.
A final field of 1️⃣3️⃣ for the Derby then!
Anthony Van Dyck
Bangkok
Broome
Circus Maximus
Hiroshima
Humanitarian
Japan
Line Of Duty
Madhmoon
Norway
Sir Dragonet
Sovereign
TelecasterThe draw is live at 11am here https://t.co/U35tEO9Ldv
— Unibet Racing (@UnibetRacing) May 30, 2019
And now I can’t wait until Saturday and the race itself. I won’t be running home to turn on the TV to catch the race, but I’ll still have that same excitement as they approach the two-furlong marker as I did 42 years ago. But who will be kicking on at this point this time around?
