Santa Claus puns abounded at Epsom on Saturday when Aidan O’Brien’s 12th Betfred Derby winner Christmas Day delivered jockey Ronan Whelan a defining success in English racing’s blue riband event.On a day that produced abysmal weather conditions more akin to a midwinter steeplechase than the world’s most famous flat race, it was Whelan and the apparent outsider of O’Brien’s four runners that slogged their way to glory and delivered the trainer a 50th English classic.Sustained betting support down to 7-1 from overnight prices of 20-1 suggested plenty believed Christmas Day could upset the Ballydoyle pecking order in the conditions and so it proved.Last year’s winning rider Wayne Lordan cut out the pace on Action, closely followed by Whelan and Christmas Day. Any presumptions that they were merely cutting out a strong pace for their stable companions Benvenuto Cellini and Pierre Bonnard could quickly be discounted.In fact, the favourite Benvenuto Cellini’s race was over before it even began. Ryan Moore’s mount fell out of the stalls and replays showed he had put his back leg on a running board in the starting stalls. It meant he was on three legs when the gates opened. A subsequent stewards inquiry resulted in him being declared a non-runner.Bets on Benvenuto Cellini made Wednesday’s declarations will be refunded. If the bad news for Christmas Day backers was a 25 per cent deduction on winning bets he ultimately still won by nearly three lengths from Maltese Cross with Joseph O’Brien’s hope, James J Braddock, in third.On ground that had turned soft through incessant rain, perhaps the biggest question as the field rounded Tattenham Corner into the straight was where the Derby field would race.Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla present the Epsom Derby Trophy to trainer Aidan O'Brien. Photograph: Carl Court/PA Wire Maybe not since Sailor won the 1820 Derby did a navigation theme prevail as much. Not in living memory had a Derby field swung wide on to the stands side which is at the height of a camber that descends to the far rail and so is drier when there is heavy rain.Winners on the run-up to the big race came up the stands side, stayed on the far rail, and Oisin Murphy plotted a route up the middle to land the Coolmore Coronation Cup on Bay City Roller. Whelan opted for the Murphy route and secured a dream outcome.The 33-year-old former champion apprentice from Monasterevin in Co Kildare has seen a rejuvenation of his career since joining the Ballydoyle team. Last year he secured a pair of Group One victories for O’Brien aboard Hawk Mountain and Precise. But this trumped the lot.“It was just so easy. Aidan told me just keep it simple. I had Wayne to do the fractions. When Wayne is in front he never gets it wrong so I knew if I was alongside him I was in safe hands. The horse did it so easy – it was effortless for him,” Whelan said.He added: “When we were running down the hill I knew I had loads left. I wish I was as cool a customer as the horse was. He took it all in his stride, he’s a gent. It’s very surreal, I knew when the rain came my lad would love it and I had a really good feeling down at the start. It couldn’t have gone any better – it felt like a bit of work.”He joins a select band of nine jockeys to have won the Derby for O’Brien. They range from renowned figures like Moore, Mick Kinane and Johnny Murtagh to less high-profile figures such as Padraig Beggy and Emmet McNamara. The common thread remains the trainer.Quarter of a century after a first Derby with Galileo, the 56-year-old continues to rewrite the sport’s record books. This was the first time the Derby has been won four years in a row by a trainer. With the power of his Coolmore backing, there looks little stopping further rewrites for a long time to come.Jockey Ronan Whelan (third from right) and trainer Aidan O'Brien (left) after victory. Photograph: Matt Alexander/PA “He’s done nothing but improve, he’s so genuine, stays, and loved soft ground. I’m delighted for the lads [owners], they put everything in,” O’Brien said. “He’s a tough hardy horse and by the right stallion [Camelot]. Ronan gave him a beautiful ride, very straightforward.”As for Benvenuto Cellini, O’Brien commented: “Ryan said he jumped out with three legs and one was hung up on the stalls. These things happen, that’s racing, things don’t always go right. He obviously, unusually, had his foot up on the side of the stalls and it was all over for him.”The Irish Derby and a shot at emulating five other O’Brien horses that have completed the Epsom-Curragh now looks an obvious route for Christmas Day whose name inevitably prompted references to the 1964 double-Derby hero, Santa Claus, also trained in Ireland.But in a race so resonant with history, impressions of the 247th Derby will always be stamped with the weather fates. For those desperate to restore the public appeal of such an event, the dreadful conditions were a terrible blow.The supreme shop window for elite summer flat racing wound up producing images that could easily fitted a particularly muddy bumper.The point was underlined in a Coronation Cup that saw O’Brien fill the minor placings with Jan Bruegehl and Lambourn as the mud-loving Bay City Roller won by distance. Over 40 lengths behind the winner was the world’s top-rated racehorse, Calandagan, reduced to an also-ran by the extreme conditions.“Obviously I made a mistake by running him. He hated the ground, he never travelled and he was having a very hard blow afterwards – I’ve never seen him blowing so much,” Calandagan’s trainer Francis Graffard said.“It’s frustrating to have asked him for this effort today, but to be fair I walked the course at the end of the morning, and I think it has changed a lot since the beginning of the afternoon.“It was a messy race with horses all over the straight. I don’t like that and I’m upset for my horse, but hopefully he comes out of it well, we’ll regroup and be competitive next time,” he added.