Wayne Lordan rides first winner in famous Classic
Favourite Delacroix well beaten after being bumped
“Everything in Ballydoyle is about Epsom,” Aidan O’Brien said on Saturday after the Derby, and perhaps a little superfluously, as Lambourn’s 13-2 success in the colts’ Classic had just sealed a clean sweep of the three Group One events at the meeting. Lambourn was not the first string in the trainer’s three-strong team – Delacroix, the 2-1 favourite with Ryan Moore in the saddle was only ninth – but like every other horse at the yard, he had been prepared like an Epsom horse from his first days at the yard.
Like Minnie Hauk, Friday’s Oaks winner, he had also been sent to Chester’s May meeting, where the undulations and turns are similar to those at Epsom, to complete his preparation for Saturday’s race, and having been sent straight into the lead by Wayne Lordan, his jockey, he gained another length or two on his field with a slick, assured passage down the hill and around Tattenham Corner.
Lazy Griff, who was one and a half lengths behind Lambourn in the Chester Vase, had also been close to the pace from the off and briefly threatened to make inroads into Lambourn’s lead from three out, but Lambourn found more when Lordan asked for a final effort and he was nearly four lengths in front of Lazy Griff (50-1) and Christophe Soumillon at the line. Tennessee Stud, another outsider at 28-1, was third for trainer Joseph O’Brien, the winning jockey aboard Australia, Lambourn’s sire, in 2014.
