The Kentucky Derby is finally on the horizon, and this year, the self-proclaimed ‘most exciting two minutes in sports’ is gearing up for an historic edition of the race at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
However, while ‘The Run for the Roses’ remains the most-watched and highest-attended horse race in the world, it has a complicated relationship with the Irish racing industry.
2024 is the 150th anniversary of this legendary event, so why has no Irish horse or trainer ever won the Kentucky Derby?
Irish horses and trainers enjoy American success
Irish racing has become synonymous with achievement across the globe, with previous wins in the Melbourne Cup and the Japan Cup in Australia and Asia, respectively, further building its reputation.
While an Irish-trained horse has yet to be draped in a blanket of roses in Kentucky, Irish charges have tasted success elsewhere in America.
The Shark Hanlon-trained Hewick was a rags-to-riches winner at the US Grand National in 2022, pocketing a mammoth $250,000 top prize in New Jersey.
In May 2023, the Willie Mullins-trained Scaramanga was ridden to glory at the Calvin Houghland Iroquois Hurdle Stakes in Nashville by prolific jockey Paul Townend, while later the same year, Aidan O’Brien’s Auguste Rodin landed the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.
That triumph was O’Brien’s 18th Breeders’ Cup title, proving that stateside success is possible for Ireland’s best in the right environment, though the Kentucky Derby remains a frontier unconquered for Irish horses and trainers.
Indeed, O’Brien entered the highly regarded Mendelssohn in the 2018 iteration of the Kentucky Derby, though the heavily backed three-year-old only managed a 20th-place finish, a full 74 lengths behind the eventual winner, Justify.
Typically, and somewhat ironically, Mendelssohn rebounded to second in the G1 Travers and fifth in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in the US after his misstep in Louisville.
Sorry, Kentucky Derby – Ireland is just not that into you!
In truth, while the Kentucky Derby is understandably put on a pedestal by the horse racing industry in the US, interest in competing in the event from Ireland – and indeed Europe – is relatively low.
A list of pros and cons concerning Irish entry into the Kentucky Derby would almost certainly be dominated by the latter, and Aidan O’Brien offered some insight into how difficult the experience can be when he failed with Mendelssohn 2018.
Speaking at Newmarket after his return journey that year, O’Brien said:
In America, dirt racing is very aggressive at the best of times but when the weather goes like that [very wet], the aggression turns into nearly savagery. We never experienced that. We experienced normal dirt racing before and we were prepared for that but we weren’t prepared for the different level of intensity. And obviously when we weren’t prepared, the horse wasn’t prepared. So ultimately the horse and the jockey paid the price for it.
It was over from the gate. At the gate, he was wiped out. And then he went to the bend and got wiped again. We obviously have to be more aggressive from the gates. And those [US-trained] horses that are on that road are taught that way from day one and the aggression becomes an impulse after a while, they don’t even think about.
And so, it seems, according to O’Brien, at least, that the Kentucky Derby is a race that Irish horses might never be in a condition to win.
The timing is wrong
While there are several contributing factors to an apparent Irish indifference to the Kentucky Derby, the main reason could be timing. The Kentucky Derby is staged annually in May, which is traditionally around the same time as the flat turf season kicks into gear in Europe.
Furthermore, the big-price British Classics garner far more attention from trainers and stables on this side of the pond, and with high-profile events such as June’s Epsom Derby too close for comfort on the calendar, priority is given to events nearer to home.
Other major events, such as the Grand National, rub shoulders with the preliminary rounds and qualifiers for the Kentucky Derby, further complicating the issue and making the indifference easy to understand.
With energy reserved for more pressing, larger competitions set in the UK and Ireland, trainers at home keep their best horses primed for races of a more traditional fare.
Indeed, the Kentucky Derby requires entrants to earn a starting spot through preliminary qualification. The Alan Smurfit Memorial Beresford Stakes is a qualifier on the European Road to the Kentucky Derby, hosted at the Curragh Racecourse in Kildare each year.
In its last edition (September 2023), Paddy Twomey’s Deepbone won, while Aidan O’Brien-trained charges filled the next three places in the event, including the much-vaunted Navy Seal. However, none of those horses made the final cut for the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
Will they ever shower us with roses?
The Irish Kentucky Derby drought will pass its 150th year in 2024, and though there seems little appetite in Ireland to attempt to break the Louisville hoodoo, there are still whispers about a possible triumph at Churchill Downs in the future.
Aidan O’Brien’s three-pronged entry into the Alan Smurfit Memorial Beresford Stakes last year hinted that conquering the Kentucky Derby might still be on his racing bucket list, though he is unlikely to admit that publicly.
However, O’Brien was undoubtedly burned badly by the failure of his $3m purchase Mendelssohn in 2018 – and the horse’s disappointing 20th-place finish would have also been tracked with interest by O’Brien’s Irish rivals.
Mendelssohn was O’Brien’s sixth Kentucky Derby runner, though he hasn’t returned since. Hewick’s unexpected triumph at the US Grand National in 2022 seemed to spark fresh optimism in Ireland, however, with hope that a similarly trailblazing effort might be possible in Louisville.
Who knows, after Willie Mullins’ and Paul Townend’s success with Scaramanga in Nashville in May last year, maybe a more concerted effort to build towards Kentucky will see an Irish contestant showered with roses soon?
Bet on global sports competitions at TonyBet.
