'I woke up to find it had actually happened' - how Roger Charlton experienced Derby glory in a drug-fuelled haze

Few training careers will ever get off to the start Roger Charlton enjoyed in 1990 – but the trainer has revealed that his Derby victory that year largely passed him by.

Charlton was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday's newspaper in which he looks back at his 34-year training career at Beckhampton, where he will shortly hand over the licence to son Harry, the highlight of which came during a sensational week in his first full season in 1990 when Sanglamore won the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly four days before Quest For Fame was due to run at Epsom.

"I went to the doctor in Marlborough on the Monday after we'd won the French race, knowing the press would build it up into Charlton going for the Derby double," he said.

"I wasn't a drug-taker but I knew some of my friends took Valium and I thought I'd get some. The doctor prescribed me some beta blockers instead, which are the things snooker players use to slow the heart down, and when I woke up at five o'clock on the morning of the race, full of angst, I took one or two, maybe three, more than the recommended dose anyway.

"I needed them, though. Quest For Fame was cast in his box the night before the race. He'd never been cast before, I don't think he was ever cast after, but it could have made a complete difference to one's career if he hadn't run and it goes to show how much can go wrong every day.

"So, by the time somebody handed me a glass of champagne in the car park, nothing was getting to me at all. The saddle went on, the race was run, we won and it was all a ridiculous dream, the press conference, the nice time being entertained by Her Majesty with a cup of tea in the royal box, coming home to a bit of bunting at the yard, then waking up to find it had actually happened."

The start of it all: Quest For Fame (Pat Eddery) wins the 1990 Derby in Roger Charlton's first season as a trainerCredit: Allsport UK/Allsport

It meant Charlton was not immediately aware that his victory hadn't gone down well in all quarters, not least with the trainer of the runner-up.

"Blue Stag was second, trained by Barry Hills, who had been trying to win the Derby forever, and I heard he told somebody that it was a complete fraud that some rookie trainer had come along and won the Derby," he said. "And I can understand his point of view – it was a fraud, this plonker sweeping in and doing that in his first year."

Read more from Roger Charlton in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

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