A Horseman's Derby

EPSOM, UK—”I'm not really a person to get over-excited about things,” said Adam Kirby as he stooped over the podium after winning his first Classic, the most important one of them all.

For the tall, gaunt jockey, so admired by his peers but with nothing like the rock star profile of Frankie Dettori, even riding at nine stone is a struggle. Slow to face the press for the post-race conference, he admitted he'd taken his time in the weighing-room so he could have a bottle of juice while gathering his thoughts.

He added, “I'm not very good at interviews, am I?” That's not a statement you'd ever hear from Dettori either, but it is Kirby all over. Just 15 minutes earlier, however, as he'd been led in to that hallowed circle at Epsom aboard Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the Godolphin third colours with the red cap, there was no mistaking his elation in the crowning moment of his career. 

Dettori hadn't needed the sun to shine for him at Epsom on Friday as he steered Snowfall (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) to her 16-length Oaks romp; his own theatrics were enough to lift the mood following a relentlessly wet day. Being back at the same track on Saturday was like being in a different country. The sun beat down, the Red Devils parachuted onto the track before racing as usual, and the National Anthem rung out. Only The Queen, the double-decker buses and about 50,000 racegoers were missing.

As Kirby agreed, he doesn't exactly have a mega-watt personality but he is a horseman with sublime skills, and that was what shone out across the Downs on Saturday. At the beginning of the week, he was expecting to be aboard John Leeper (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the Cazoo Derby. As Aidan O'Brien declared only Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) on Thursday and Dettori was no longer required for a Ballydoyle runner, the Italian jockey who had been original first choice for John Leeper was confirmed for the ride. Kirby was stood down.

“You wouldn't have wanted to be around me for the first hour that night, but then I got over it,” he admitted. But before long Charlie Appleby had called on Kirby to book him for Adayar. His gain was in turn Oisin Murphy's loss. 

“Mad, crazy, what goes around, comes around,” said Kirby. A mantra all jockeys must live by.

Though not one of the outfit's retained riders, he has enjoyed plenty of success for Godolphin. And with his partner Megan Evans at their Vicarage Farm just outside Newmarket Kirby now plays an arguably even more crucial role for the royal blue team as breaker and pre-trainer of many of their young horses. Appleby stated that Kirby had broken in the horse who would become his Derby winner. Kirby couldn't remember, though he won't be forgetting Adayar now, or anytime soon.

“I broke in One Ruler,” he said with certainty of the Derby sixth-place finisher. “I do a lot of horses for Charlie. I love every minute of that as well. Charlie is a great supporter of us at Vicarage Farm.”

Through his winning Derby ride it's easy to see why he would be such a good pair of hands to have aboard a young colt as he surrenders to the early training process. His was a performance that was as simple as it was skilful: break well, get a good position, get your horse to switch off just behind the leaders and then strike when a gap opens up on the rail. Easy. 

Except it rarely is that easy at Epsom, with its notoriously tricky camber. The modest Kirby might argue that everything simply went right for him and Adayar, but it was a ride that showed exactly why Appleby was happy to put his faith in Kirby, ahead of the reigning champion jockey, as soon as he heard he had been left without a Derby ride.   

“Adam is a natural horseman. He can settle horses, he can send horses,” said Appleby, and that is exactly what he did to win the Derby, making up Adayar's mind for him, sending him on in only the fifth race of his life, as the early leader Gear Up (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) weakened and rolled off the rail.

Frankel is yet to sire a Guineas winner but he had already had the Oaks winner Anapurna (GB) and St Leger winner Logician (GB) before Adayar became his first Derby winner in a field which featured two other colts by him, and another son Mohaafeth (Ire) as a late withdrawal. As brilliant as Frankel was it always rankled that he never tackled the Derby himself. There are two sides to every pedigree, of course, but Frankel's increasingly impressive record with middle-distance runners only increases that regret.

Similarly, it had been a shame to see Adayar's dam, the obviously talented Anna Salai (Dubawi {Ire}) move from Andre Fabre to Mahmood Al Zarooni and never really build on her early promise. A descendant of Anna Paola (Ger), from the same family as the 1000 Guineas winner of 2018, Billesdon Brook (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}), the Irish 1000 Guineas runner-up Anna Salai now claws back some deserved recognition with a Classic winner of her own in Godolphin's second homebred Derby winner in three years.

It was Appleby's retained jockey William Buick aboard Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) back in 2018, and this time around Buick looked equally thrilled as he returned to the third-place spot aboard supposed first string Hurricane Lane (Ire), another son of Frankel. He's a team player, and first and third in the Derby is some result for the team. But Buick would have been all too aware of what the result would mean to his winning colleague.

With the build more akin to a National Hunt jockey, Kirby makes daily sacrifices to keep his weight in check, and his list of achievements, which now runs to nine Group 1 wins, is all the greater given the number of rides for which his size makes him ineligible. During the covid pandemic he has at least benefited from the rise in the weights.

“It's been an absolute privilege to have the extra couple of pounds for the allowance due to there being no sauna,” he said. “It has made my life a lot easier and a lot less stressful.”

While thanking Appleby for his “unbelievable loyalty”, Kirby also remembered his former boss, the late Walter Swinburn, who wrote his name in the Derby history books on three occasions, most memorably with Shergar (Ire) 40 years ago.

“He was a top man and a very sad loss,” Kirby said. “He was great to ride for and he taught me always to be very cool and calm and relaxed about things, but I wouldn't say that's come out in me today.”

Those who watched the race may beg to differ. Similarly, those who have followed Kirby's career, from grafting away on the all-weather in midwinter to dazzling on racing's biggest day, will draw satisfaction from the fact that sometimes it's enough for innate horsemanship to do the talking.