Christmas Day backers left short-changed by Derby’s non-runner ruling

Fallout from declaring Benvenuto Cellini a non-runner at Epsom highlights perils of trying to micromanage racing

How long must Epsom wait to catch a break? The main elements were all in place for a feelgood running of the Derby on Saturday: a double-figure field, the major trial winners all in the lineup, and fresh incentives launched to encourage walk-up punters back to the infield. The weather gods, though, had other ideas.

Would Christmas Day have won on good-to-firm ground? Perhaps. Every horse has its chance, after all. But he was surely not a 7-1 shot had the rain not arrived, having finished only third in the Dante Stakes in May, when he was running on ground without “soft” in the description for the first time. As Ronan Whelan, Christmas Day’s rider, put it, the “stars aligned” for Aidan O’Brien’s fourth-string, who beat both James J Braddock, the third horse home on Saturday, and Pierre Bonnard, the seventh, on soft ground at Leopardstown in April. As things stand, though, it is hard to see him as anything more than a very average winner of the Derby, and his next race, which could be as soon as the Irish Derby later this month, will do more to establish his place in the three-year-old generation.