I hope Bonfire can satisfy my burning desire to win the Epsom Derby

Camelot will be a really tough nut to crack tomorrow but that won’t stop me dreaming of achieving my greatest ambition
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Andrew Balding1 June 2012

We know we’re up against a good one in Camelot, the unbeaten Irish colt and odds-on Derby favourite, but the bookmakers are rating Bonfire as the top home contender. And I can assure you that the privilege of simply being involved in the 233rd running of the race, never mind going there with a decent chance, is not lost on me.

As a schoolboy I could reel off Derby winners, year by year, long before I knew my times tables. Kingsclere, our stable in Hampshire, is saturated with Epsom memories. John Porter, who built it, trained no fewer than seven winners of the race there in the 19th century — two of them honoured by The Flying Fox and Ormonde yards within our stable complex.

In front of me is a photo of my great-great-grandfather, the 17th Earl of Derby, leading in Sansovino in 1924. And my father, Ian, who trained here until I took over in 2003, won it in 1971 with Mill Reef. That was the year before I was born but I see the great horse’s statue every day and as a boy I wore out the video of the film they made about him. (It was called Something To Brighten The Morning, narrated by Albert Finney. Definitely worth tracking down.)

As it happens, after waiting 10 years for one Derby colt, we have ended up running two. Minimise Risk is no mug and some day he’s going to prove it at this kind of level. For now, however, Bonfire would seem the more likely to require my sister, Clare, to interview me after the race.

I don’t think our father was convinced about Bonfire until he won the Dante Stakes, the big Derby trial at York. Dad is a great help to me, above all in managing our gallops. But Bonfire is not a very flamboyant worker. He’ll only show you flashes of his brilliance. There was a day last year when he made me think, ‘Wow, this is a nice horse.’ But dad wasn’t there and it was only at York that he began to believe.

Bonfire had run twice in his first season. Young David Probert rode him on his debut at Salisbury, rather than our senior jockey, Jimmy Fortune.

The fact is the horse had been a real monkey on the gallops. I had him accompanied to the start by a pony, something I’d never done before. But David’s a wonderful horseman — he just lacks experience at this level for now — and they won really well.

I was watching at a yearling sale in Ireland with Harry Herbert, who manages the Highclere syndicate that owns Bonfire, and his brother-in-law, John Warren, who had bought him. And we sat down at Dublin airport and decided we would have to pitch Bonfire straight into a good race, as it was late in the season and we had to know where we stood — in other words, whether he would warrant a Derby preparation this spring.

So we ran him in a top race for two-year-olds in France and he was a really unlucky third. He was stopped three times and Jimmy was adamant he would have won with a clear run.

The form of that race has worked out well and suddenly Bonfire was being tipped everywhere for the Derby. That meant the pressure was really on at York last month and I’d have hated for the bubble to burst there.

Luckily everything worked out and he seems to have come out of his race very well. But people are still asking questions: about his temperament, for which he seems to be rather notorious, and his stamina. I admit there’s a question mark about the latter, on pedigree, but at York he looked like a horse that will stay the extra distance at Epsom.

As for the idea that he’s some sort of ogre, the reality is that he’s just a bit of a playboy. A friend of mine, Dan Jocelyn, is a very good three-day eventer and he’s had Bonfire over a few times just to give him something to think about. I believe that’s ironed out a few kinks in the horse. The bottom line is that if he loses the plot at Epsom — if he can’t cope with the parade and atmosphere — then he won’t be worthy of winning a Derby.

That’s how much the race means to me. Yes, it’s my greatest ambition to win it. But I would want to do so with a colt who deserves his place in the roll of honour, under Mill Reef and Ormonde and all the rest.

Everything I hear about Camelot suggests he’s one of the best they have ever had at Ballydoyle. He’s a magnificent looking horse and was hugely impressive in the first Classic of the season, the 2,000 Guineas. If we can beat him, we know we’ll have a worthy winner. And that would mean more to me than I can say.

Our four to follow

1. Camelot

2. Bonfire

3. Thought Worthy

4. Main Sequence

The Investec Derby, live on BBC1 at 4pm tomorrow, is part of the Qipco British Champions’ Series.

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