Racing Derby reportFor someone who is a spiritual leader to millions, the Aga Khan's cool diplomacy has never been in doubt. But even he admitted to some tattered emotions after yesterday's epic Budweiser Irish Derby.
Alamshar and the hot favourite Dalakhani provided one of the great stretch battles that the famous Curragh track has seen.
Quite what it must have been like to own both horses only the Aga Khan can know but Alamshar's half length success resonated history as he carried the "change strip" of the Aga's Khan's grandfather who also won Ireland's premier classic five times. It also provided the fairytale ending to a weekend that frayed the nerves of Alamshar's trainer John Oxx who only on Friday believed his star colt wouldn't make the race.
"On Friday he couldn't even walk straight. He had a very stiff back and I was very pessimistic," said Oxx. Along with jockey John Murtagh, Oxx was adding to Sinndar's Derby success three years ago and from that classic campaign we know that when Oxx is pessimistic he means it.
But prologned physio and a visit on Saturday from a French chiropractor somehow managed to have Alamshar transformed into a classic hero who justified all the faith put in him.
"I thought he would run like that at Epsom but he didn't. If he had I think he would have won. He just has such tremendous courage," Oxx said.
"It was wonderful to see such a battle between the two horses. Dalakhani was such a worthy favourite. He is a great horse and I wasn't expecting to beat him," he added.
"It's funny how it has all worked out because on Friday he was looking unlikely to run and it was pouring down with rain and looking like the ground might go against him too. And here we are on perfect ground with the sun shining and we have just won the Derby, Oxx added."
Typically Murtagh exuded more confidence and declared: "Dalakhani might be the king of France but he is on our turf now!" The Aga Khan maintained a determinedly neutral stance on which colt he was shouting for during that magnificent tussle and parried: "I was shouting for mine!" It wouldn't be the greatest surprise in the world, however, if he had delivered more than a few shouts at Dalakhani's rider Christophe Soumillon soon after the start.
There was little surprise that the pacemakers in the Aidan O'Brien team would make it a good clip. A mild surprise was the actual pace that High Country and Handel went. But a real shock was the readiness with which Soumillon took up the chase.
Dalakhani languished in a sort of no-man's land between the pace-setters and the pack for much of the race, a strange location for a horse famed for his burst of pace.
Sure enough Murtagh had Dalakhani in his sights and joined the battle in the straight. In a race run a full four seconds faster than 2002, Dalakhani faltered in the final furlong and his trainer was left wondering what might have been.
"He ran a good race but he ran like a leader. He is not a leader," said Alain de Royer Dupre. In behind, the talk was also of pace.
"I've never gone as fast in my life over that trip," said Jamie Spencer who rode Brian Boru into fourth. "They went some pace," said Michael Kinane who reported that Epsom had taken its toll on The Great Gatsby.
Instead it was the 150 to 1 outsider Roosevelt who ran best of the Ballydoyle sextet in third.
Oxx confirmed that the King George at Ascot is next on Alamshar's agenda but Dalakahani will be kept for the Arc.
They may never meet again and quite what the result will be if they ever do is still debatable. What isn't, however, is the thrilling legacy of Derby 2003.
