'It's very exciting and poignant - but I think Dad would be quite embarrassed'
Peter Thomas tells the tale of the horse named to be a hero of Epsom
For a 52-year-old racehorse trainer, the prospect of winning the Derby for the first time is a tantalising one, usually mentioned only in tones measured enough to mask the sheer enormity of the dream. Best not get too carried away, no matter that landing the world's premier Classic race has the power to change lives and revive slumbering careers.
For a nine-year-old schoolboy, meanwhile, considerations of caution and restraint rarely trouble the psyche. Life is a simpler thing altogether, and for the son of a successful racehorse trainer in the late 1970s, winning the Derby was less about careful perspective and more about unshackled childhood glee.
Certainly for Ed Dunlop, the sight of Shirley Heights slipping up the rail to overhaul Hawaiian Sound in the final strides to land the race for his father John at Epsom in 1978 was a source of great delight, although for reasons that had little to do with stud valuations and the future of the breed.
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Copy- ‘I’ve never had to deal with that in my career and I did find it hard - you start asking yourself what you’re doing wrong’
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- ‘I miss the craic of going racing but it’s a young person’s game these days - and I don’t know how they survive, to be honest’
- 'I don't want to be part of this narrative that Irish trainers are better than us - I think that's rubbish, it drives me nuts'
- 'I don't even know what day of the week it is - I'd love a day off but racing is so relentless that you can't do it'
- ‘I’ve never had to deal with that in my career and I did find it hard - you start asking yourself what you’re doing wrong’
- ‘I’ll be there to see the kids open their presents but then it’s a coffee, bang, out the door’ - life in a racing yard at Christmas
- ‘I miss the craic of going racing but it’s a young person’s game these days - and I don’t know how they survive, to be honest’
- 'I don't want to be part of this narrative that Irish trainers are better than us - I think that's rubbish, it drives me nuts'
- 'I don't even know what day of the week it is - I'd love a day off but racing is so relentless that you can't do it'