Horatio Nelson whingers: send your favourite charity €100 and move on
It's not as if this was a good classic, indeed one suspects it was particularly sub-standard, but so much went on before and during the contest that it was quite unforgettable.
First things first, the temptation to tell those who have been constantly moaning about Horatio Nerlson being allowed to run to get a life is almost overwhelming.
Ah, to hell with it, let's just tell them to go and get a bloody life. We all now know that Kieren Fallon had some misgivings regarding the colt's well-being and trotted him up and down prior to the start.
But he seemed perfectly okay and the racecourse vet, Aidan O'Brien and Fallon were all happy to let him take his chance.
Over a furlong from home, Horatio Nelson broke his leg and had to be humanely destroyed. Of course you can argue the horse should have been taken out and, perhaps, you are right.
But hindsight is so wonderful and there is no greater bore in this world today than the after-dinner speaker.
O'Brien, Fallon and the vet had to make a judgement call, under a huge amount of pressure. Their expert opinion was that Horatio Nelson was healthy and well and ready to roll.
What followed wasn't a tragedy or a disaster, it was simply the death of a racehorse. This game, which gives so many of us so much pleasure, is largely an irrelevancy in the greater scheme of things.
Aidan O'Brien looks after his horses the same way a concerned parent would care for his children. They have a nicer life in Hotel Ballydoyle than do many humans.
O'Brien wouldn't deliberately put an inmate in danger. If he, and others, read this wrong then so what. The person who never made a mistake never made anything, so let's move on.
The papers this week have been crammed with real tragedy and disaster. There are humans all over the world who are starving.
If you are one of those who has been enjoying a good whinge, and would actually like to achieve something, then send Concern, Goal or some such agency a hundred euro and don't be worrying about the passing, untimely and all as it was, of a horse.
O'Brien will have taken this worse than anyone else. When it goes wrong for team Ballydoyle, he frequently accepts the blame.
Hopefully, however, he won't have dwelt too long and has put the whole matter into context. The death of Horatio Nelson was unfortunate, but no more than that.
Anyway, as a contest, this Derby left an awful lot to be desired. The distances between the first four were a short head, a head and a short head and that nearly always spells: "bad race.''
Philip Robinson subsequently bemoaned the fact that previously once-raced Hala Bek, which took fourth, lost the race through greenness in the closing stages.
Maybe, but Robinson didn't seem to be much help. He appeared to get totally unbalanced, indeed it would be no exaggeration to say John Wayne might have looked neater!
Dylan Thomas finished third and Fallon's comments that Horatio Nelson was far superior to him was almost enough to make this observer burst into tears.
Anyway, we really won't know for sure whether this Derby was any good or not until horses from the race start to appear again.
Chances are, however, that they may not amount to much. You would have to be forgiven for thinking that the older horses would just kick them out of the way.
The Irish Derby is nearly always the definitive test and this year, more than ever, will be no different.
THE sun absolutely baked down on Listowel on Sunday and Monday and there was every reason to believe the ground would ride like the road.
But clerk of the course, Peter McGouran, and his team did a fantastic job of watering and I didn't hear a complaint.
Jockey, Ruby Walsh, went out of his way to praise their efforts and it would be remiss of us not to put it on record.
