Irish Derby: Séamus Heffernan stepped into the most intense spotlight that racing can provide in Ireland when Soldier Of Fortune ran out a breathtaking nine-length winner of yesterday's Budweiser Irish Derby at the Curragh.
The heavily backed 5 to 1 winner led home a remarkable 1-2-3 for the champion trainer Aidan O'Brien whose apparent number one, the 6 to 4 favourite Eagle Mountain, could manage only third with Alexander Of Hales in the runner-up position.
Eagle Mountain's rider, Kieren Fallon, had been aiming to become the first jockey to win the Derby three years in a row but even on a day where the weather did its best to spoil the mood, there was nothing but joy for Fallon's understudy at O'Brien's Ballydoyle stables.
Heffernan (34) has always been a vital cog in the O'Brien winner machine but usually finds himself relegated to a supporting role on the really big occasions.
However, Fallon's hugely-publicised problems, which have included a drugs ban that only allowed him return to action last month, have meant Heffernan has increasingly filled the void in Ireland this year and an already successful season to date got the ideal topping yesterday.
"Because of Kieren's misfortune, I've stepped in for a lot of winners but this is the icing on the cake," said the quietly spoken rider whose only previous classic success was on Imagine in the 2001 Irish 1,000 Guineas.
Just two other Group One races figure on his CV, Beckett in the National Stakes and Mount Nelson in last year's Criterium International, but O'Brien, for one, has never underestimated Heffernan.
"This is really special for Séamus. No one works harder. He rides all the good horses at home. He's getting better year by year and is a world-class jockey," said the champion trainer who was collecting his fifth Derby, and completing a clean sweep of an Irish classic for the fourth time.
Rarely, however, can O'Brien have known a winner from so far out in a race as Soldier Of Fortune grabbed the initiative early in the straight and galloped to the line in exemplary fashion to record the longest winning distance since St Jovite's 12-length thrashing in 1992.
There was a fitting link with St Jovite as Solider Of Fortune was bred by St Jovite's trainer Jim Bolger.
Both yesterday's hero and the champion two-year-old Teofilo grew up together and Soldier Of Fortune's part owner, John Magnier, said: "It would be a great race if the two of them met and who knows what the future will bring."
What yesterday brought was another red-letter day for Coolmore, the world's most powerful racing and breeding operation, although for Heffernan the significance of it all was surely more personal.
Typically however, the Sallins-born jockey played things low-key.
"I was confident I would be in the money today and at the two furlong pole, I knew I'd get it all," he said. "I've ridden a lot of Derby horses in their trials and in their work and it's great to be on one of them on the big day. But it's easy when you're on the best horse."
The ground, which was switched to "soft to heavy" less than a couple of hours before the big race, didn't help Eagle Mountain who was under pressure soon after halfway. "He's only a small horse and it was just too testing for him," said Fallon. "You have to be travelling into the straight here and he just wasn't."
In contrast, Soldier Of Fortune raced with a smile on his face according to his trainer whose instinct for reading the minds of his horses was disclosed once again after the race.
"If his attitude hadn't changed so much since his last race, you could put today down to the ground. But his whole demeanour has changed for his run at Epsom. Before that he working well, and everything was fine physically with him, but he was working without a smile on his face. Since Epsom, he has been coming into the barn every morning with a big grin," said the master horseman.
Maybe it was those reports of a grinning racehorse near Cashel recently that provoked a gamble on Soldier Of Fortune who was backed into second favouritism for the last Irish Derby sponsored by Budweiser.
Whatever the reason, his supporters collected in the sort of style that provoked quotes of as low as 5 to 1 for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in October. Soldier Of Fortune has also been made favourite for the St Leger in September.
O'Brien wouldn't be drawn on where Soldier Of Fortune will run next although he did appear to indicate that either Dylan Thomas or Scorpion are more likely to run in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
Wherever he goes, Heffernan made a convincing argument yesterday about staying on him.
1 Soldier of Fortune J A Heffernan (5/1)
2 Alexander Of Hales M J Kinane (33/1)
3 Eagle Mountain K Fallon (6/4fav)
4 Boscobel J Fanning (8/1)
