Benvenuto Cellini makes amends with Irish Derby triumph

It was one of British Racing’s biggest controversial talking points for the season when Benvenuto Cellini, the pre-race favourite for the Epsom Derby, was declared a non-runner after competing in the race … in a manner of speaking … after his start was seemingly compromised by the fact that his near-hind leg was awkwardly placed up on the running board inside the starting stall when the gates opened.

Be that as it may, there was no doubt that the exceptionally heavy racing surface on the day also conspired against Benvenuto Cellini.

The furore following the decision to refund tickets on the favourite … with bets on the winner, Christmas Day, another Aidan O’Brien trained horse, then being subject to a twenty-five percent deduction … raged loud and long, all to no avail.

Fast forward twenty-two days and Benvenuto Cellini, who Ryan Moore had stuck with after his Epsom misadventure, set the record straight in no uncertain terms taking out the Irish Derby at The Curragh, beating the Epsom Derby winner Christmas Day into second place with Pierre Bonnard finishing third, giving Aidan O’Brien not only his eighteenth Irish Derby winner, but also the big race trifecta.

O’Brien had produced a similar one-two-three result in the Prix du Jockey Club … the French Derby … which was won by Constitution River, meaning that O’Brien has taken out three different Derby races this season with three different horses.

O’Brien gave some fascinating insight into the strange mannerism that Benevenuto exhibits … that which got him into trouble at Epsom.

“He’s just got a habit of lifting his hind legs and putting then out (in the starting stalls),” O’Brien told Racing TV. “Even when they put him at home he puts them out … a very unusual thing … and it is not a panic thing at all.

“He doesn’t panic, but the way the stalls were (at Epsom) he obviously got stuck up on the ledge and he couldn’t get his leg down and, as we saw, he came out on three legs and, even after a stride it was still up there, so it had to be a disadvantage obviously.”

O’Brien confirmed that ‘the lads’ had done a lot of work with Benvenuto Cellini in-between runs and it all came down to a happy ending at The Curragh where Benvenuto Cellini raced to his full potential to earn a Classic victory.