EPSOM DERBY:JIM BOLGER is famously devout so the proverb about sowing what you reap might have sprung to mind as New Approach returned to a comparatively muted reception after winning Saturday's Epsom Derby. Just a few catcalls reportedly interrupted the normally exultant prize-giving ceremony but while etiquette was followed no one pretended to ignore the controversy smouldering underneath the surface: which is some kind of pity because the great old race had just seen some kind of performance.

More than a few of the Irish star's fans must have turned their gaze away after just a couple of furlongs when New Approach resolutely disobeyed Kevin Manning's requests to settle. Such a display of head-tossing is normally enough to safely allow a presumption of exhaustion long before the finish.

So as Dermot Weld's 7 to 2 favourite, Casual Conquest, vainly attempted to repel Tartan Bearer it required a double-take to cope with the sight of New Approach powering up the inside. Manning's inspired move there cost him a three-day careless riding ban but what a trade it proved to be. Somehow New Approach still had enough petrol in the tank to go by the post half a length clear and with the impression that "E for empty" was not even close to being an issue.

There is an annual danger in the immediate Derby aftermath of inflating expectations of the winner but to win the world's most prestigious classic almost in spite of himself makes dreaming of what New Approach might do at the Curragh later in the month almost inevitable. All of which makes the rumbling controversy still surrounding Bolger's U-turn about running the colt just five days previously even more regrettable.

The Co Carlow-based trainer is a man easier to admire than to like but there is an awful lot to admire. Unlike so many of his colleagues the 66-year-old has reached the top of his profession without recourse to inheritance or family ties. His is a purely self-made career, based on hard work, determination and a flinty disregard for the opinions of others. A career-defining success like Saturday's should have been a validation of all that. Instead the aftermath of New Approach's victory turned into a defensive attempt to justify what had been a pretty basic lack of courtesy.

Ante-post punters were treated shabbily by Bolger. This isn't some linguistic debate on the subtleties of qualifying sub-clauses. For whatever reasons Bolger repeatedly went out of his way to stress Epsom was not on New Approach's agenda. All it required somewhere along the line was even the hint of an "unlikely" in regard to running plans for the Derby and a lot of aggro could have been averted. But Bolger was having none of it, seemingly eager to pursue some personal point.

To then turn around five days beforehand and declare the horse a runner, and blithely express surprise at the subsequent reaction, really was bewildering. Already there have been attempts to turn the issue into an Anglo-Irish issue, the whole "one-of-our-own" thing, by mealy-mouthed corn merchants with a surfeit of opinion and little else. That's just not good enough.

Like it or not, punters do count, and it doesn't matter if what they're betting is ante-post and relatively small. Since it is those mug punters in betting shops who supply the prize-money for owners, trainers and jockeys to fight over on the track, they have a legitimate stake in the game. That counts as much in Ireland as it does in the UK. Betting shop punters here bet more on British racing than the home variety anyway, and yet all their tax revenue goes into financing the sport here.

This wasn't setting one up for a handicap at Galway: this was the Derby. Anyone who backed Tartan Bearer more than a week ago is entitled to be aggrieved. Punters in general were entitled to better.

Whether they'll see a better performance this year is unlikely, however, and that applies to both horse and jockey. Manning (41) is a man at the top of his profession where his height would suggest even making the weight over jumps would be an issue for the Dublin-born rider. To have carved out the career he has is testament to a teak-tough mind that really came to the fore on Saturday.

"I had to go back further than I would have liked but I had loads of horse under me and when the gaps opened I took them. He is a very, very classy horse," Manning said, characteristically deflecting any praise. "We owe this one to Kevin," was a statement by Bolger that everyone could identify with.

Casual Conquest stayed on for third and both Dermot Weld and Pat Smullen declared themselves willing to have another crack at New Approach at the Curragh. "They were just a bit sharp for him," said Smullen.

Tartan Bearer is also likely to have another pop at the winner, although Peter Reynolds, manager of the owner's Ballymacoll Stud, summed it up by saying: "The winner is a very good horse."

Despite everything else said about Derby 2008, that looks like emerging as an uncontested truth. It's just a pity that such admiration wasn't a dominant emotion felt by everyone on the day.

NEW APPROACH (ch c Galileo - Park Express) K J Manning (5-1) 1

Tartan Bearer (ch c Spectrum - Highland Gift) R L Moore (6-1) 2

Casual Conquest (b c Hernando - Lady Luck) P J Smullen (7-2 fav) 3