One would think Pat Eddery would agree with an American horseplayer's recent assertion that "second sucks". After all, Eddery goes into today's Derby on an unenviable hat-trick.
Runner-up the last two years, Eddery 12 months ago was denied victory in the world's most famous classic by the width of Benny The Dip's flaring nostril. Throw in two other runner-up places and four third-place finishes in the Derby and Eddery could be forgiven for viewing the annual 150second freefall around the Epsom speedway with a very jaundiced eye.
Typically, though, he doesn't. That's not the Eddery way. Buddy Delp, the runny-mouthed trainer of the American champion Spectacular Bid once confessed that: "If bullshit was electricity, I'd be a power station!" Eddery (46) has a capacity for Buddy bull that would barely make a light bulb flicker.
Driving to Cork airport after having ridden this year's Derby candidate King Of Kings in a Thursday morning workout, Eddery's logic was straightforward. There was no aggression in that famously squarely jaw as it jutted southwards: "Somebody has got to finish second, right? I mean when I won my three Derbys, somebody came second then too. What other way is there to look at it? Put it this way, I'd rather be second than last."
Winning is all that counts for Eddery. Quiet and undemonstrative out of the saddle, on it Eddery's cocktail of silken subtlety and fluid ferocity in a finish has made him a benchmark in modern racing. Talk of great jockeys and Eddery, the boy from Blackrock, is invariably mentioned.
It couldn't be otherwise. Eleven times a champion, rider of greats such as Grundy, Dancing Brave and Golden Fleece and the possessor of a big-race temperament so cool it makes Bjorn Borg look like Paul Gascoigne. And then there is the Yin and the Yang of Epsom.
The giddy highs of Grundy, Golden Fleece and Quest For Fame mixed with the frustrations of Silver Patriarch, Law Society and, most infuriatingly of all, El Gran Senor. Indelible memories all, and the Derby, of all races, still manages to crack that phlegmatic Eddery face.
"Without doubt it's still the race to win. I know it's said the Derby comes too early in the season but this looks like being a really good race. Everybody gets wound up for it with all the build-up and hype," he says while managing to look enviably serene. Significantly, though, Eddery adds: "Especially so since getting the ride on this horse."
The horse is King Of Kings, who has made an entirely positive impression on his big-race rider. The brilliantly talented colt made the doubters eat crow in the 2,000 Guineas, and has pleased Aidan O'Brien ever since. Michael Kinane's decision to take Second Empire in preference has Eddery counting his good fortune.
"He's a beautiful horse to ride, so well-balanced and he looked really good in the Guineas. The form of that is working out too, not just in small races but in Group Ones," Eddery says after revisiting Ballydoyle, where he rode for six years as stable jockey to Vincent O'Brien.
It was that stint that kindled Eddery's interest in racehorse breeding and while he admits that the dam's side of King Of Kings pedigree doesn't encourage hope of him lasting out Epsom's mile and a half, he adds: "We won't know until he races. What I do know is that he seems very cool and relaxed.
"Aidan tells me he is much more relaxed now. As a two-year-old he was taught to race but now he's a man. I know I'll have a great ride because he will travel so easily through the race and I like riding that kind of colt. He has so much speed, the track itself should not be a problem."
That important factor combined with King Of Kings' sheer natural talent makes odds of close on 10 to 1 about him winning today worthy of serious interest. Second Empire may be the apparent stable first choice but Eddery knows only too well that that can mean little. It's only five years since he went into the Derby having chosen the odds-on Tenby over Commander In Chief only to see Michael Kinane sail into the victorious distance on the "second choice".
"It wasn't pleasant but I had to live with it. Hopefully I can get one back on him," Eddery grins. Such smiles won't be seen today. The Derby is too serious for that, until afterwards. It's eight years since Eddery has worn a victorious Derby smile. It may just be that King Of Kings and Eddery were born to make each other smile.
