Remembering Erhaab's Spectacular Derby

With racing in Britain suspended until at least the end of April, just days before the Guineas would have been run at Newmarket, the one certain thing in an uncertain world is that there will be some disruption to the Classic programme this season. Hopefully that will merely be some date changes.

The last time there was a significant change to the British Classics was 25 years ago, when the Derby was moved from its traditional Wednesday slot to a Saturday. It still rankles in some quarters, though in this exceptional year, racing fans will likely settle for a Derby on any day of the week just as long as it is run.

The horse who made a little bit of history by winning the last Wednesday Derby back in 1994 is Erhaab (Chief's Crown), trained by John Dunlop for his breeder Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. Happily, he is with us still and, at the age of 29, is the oldest living Derby winner.

Erhaab has been retired from covering duties since 2013 and is very much part of the family at Batsford Stud in Gloucestershire, where he stood his final season and remains in luxurious retirement with Alan, Anna and Tim Varey.

“He's wonderful in himself, no problem at all,” reports Alan Varey. “We also have part of Mary Hambro's Cotswold Stud and he's up there with Cockney Rebel and they have a great old time. He's been with us since 2011 and when he retired Shadwell said they were happy for him to stay with us.”

Last week Shadwell shared the replay of Erhaab's Derby victory on their social media channels and Varey adds, “Seeing that brought some rare sunshine for us all at coffee break the other morning. His Derby win was phenomenal. We watched it again and again.

“Willie Carson said to me at a wedding last year that it was the hardest Derby he ever had to ride. He came from nowhere.”

Indeed, the Timeform essayist charged with recounting Erhaab's barnstorming run down the Epsom straight summed it up best with the line that Erhaab was “nowhere until being somewhere counted”, and the man in the saddle that day almost 26 years ago remembers it clearly.

“I regard his Derby as one of my best ever rides, because he didn't want to go early and then he put me in a bit of a position that I didn't really want to be in,” says Willie Carson. “But he was right and it all turned out well. We went right round the inside and he was a very talented horse, he just kept galloping on. He wasn't a flamboyant horse but he won the Derby. That's what he was born to do, and that's what he did, and he gave Sheikh Hamdan a good day out. Not many owner-breeders end up with Derby winners and Sheikh Hamdan had two.”

Carson was also aboard Sheikh Hamdan's first Derby winner, Nashwan (Blushing Groom), in 1985, and Erhaab was the jockey's fourth and final winner of the Epsom Classic at the age of 51. He had previously partnered Troy (GB) (Petingo {GB}) and Henbit (Hawaii {SAF}) to victory in 1979 and 1980.

He says of Erhaab, “I was quite proud of him. He was a funny horse, he could be a bit reluctant sometimes, it was almost as if he needed to warm up. He wasn't straightforward but the ability, as we know, was there. But he wasn't going to give you it right from the word go, you had to be a bit patient with him.”

Bred in America, Erhaab was by Danzig's son Chief's Crown, a former resident of Three Chimneys Farm who enjoyed quite the year in Britain in 1994. Along with Erhaab, who had also won the G2 Dante S. en route to the Derby, another son, Grand Lodge, won the St James's Palace S. for owner-breeder Lord Howard de Walden. Grand Lodge would go on to sire the dual Derby and Arc winner Sinndar (Ire) from his second crop but died young at just 12, at Coolmore Stud.

Erhaab was the seventh and the most celebrated offspring of the Riverman mare Histoire (Fr), who is also the dam of the G2 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Oumaldaaya (Nureyev) and listed winner Hispanolia (Kris). The youngest of Histoire's surviving offspring is Al Beedaa, a daughter of Swain. Now 19, she passed through Keeneland's November Sale last year and was bought for $5,500 by bloodstock writer Nancy Sexton, who reports that the mare foaled a filly last week by Gainesway's up-and-coming sire Karakontie (Jpn). In the first known example of her waywardness, Sexton, who was nine when Erhaab won the Derby, admits to having played truant from school to be at Epsom that day.

Shadwell Stud Director Richard Lancaster, who was present on the Downs for more legitimate reasons, recalls, “I remember standing on the stands at Epsom watching the race and thinking to myself 'oh well, that's it' and then suddenly seeing this horse take flight and Willie putting him into top gear. It was a pretty amazing performance.

“Sheikh Hamdan has had two homebred Derby winners, Nashwan and Erhaab, and we were all absolutely delighted. I can remember us rushing down with John Dunlop as he went past the post.”

Erhaab, decent if unspectacular as a 2-year-old, made just two more starts after the Derby. He was third to Ezzoud (Ire) and Bob's Return (Ire) in the Eclipse on a roasting hot day at Sandown, and then down the field in seventh when King's Theatre (Ire), who had briefly held the lead in the Derby before succumbing to Erhaab's late rattle, won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. Retired in August of that year when he was found to be suffering from damage to his suspensory ligaments behind both knees, Erhaab was initially bought to stand at East Stud in Japan before being reunited with his breeder.

“James Wigan bought him to go to Japan and he didn't really go down that well there and we bought him back at a pretty nominal amount,” Lancaster says.

Erhaab stayed for one season at Shadwell's Lexington base before returning to England to Sheikh Hamdan's Beech House Stud for five seasons and then moving on to Bill Bromley's Wood Farm Stud in Shropshire. Batsford Stud thus became his fifth home during a stallion career which resulted in a modest level of success.

Lancaster adds, “A short time after he arrived at Batsford he was very ill and we wondered whether he was going to make it. But I went down there about six weeks later and there he was still, and he's been there ever since. Alan and his family have looked after him so well and it's been a fantastic story of an old horse in happy retirement.”

Carson, too, has caught up with his old friend in recent years. He says, “I took one of my own animals into the vet's a few years ago, and who was in there but Erhaab. He was just recovering from a bout of colic. We had a bit of a reunion and he didn't bite me. We had some good days together. The day he won at York was the day he told me he had a good chance of winning the Derby.”

Carson was already a successful Classic breeder at that stage because when Minster Son (Ire) (Niniski) had landed the St Leger in 1988, Carson was multi-tasking as both winning breeder and jockey. Since then, his Minster Stud has produced another Classic hero: Jack Hobbs (GB) (Halling), who took the 2015 Irish Derby after finishing runner-up to Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in the Derby.

“I've got two yearlings by Jack Hobbs and I have a mare going to him this year,” Carson notes. “He gave us a lot of pleasure in his racing days and he's gone into the National Hunt field so it will be a bit of time before we find out if he's a good stallion. But the hope is that he will eventually take over the mantle of Kayf Tara, who is at the same stud as him and is getting on in years now. I've just got to live long enough to see it!”

The near-black Erhaab still conjures happy memories for many, even if he was regarded by Timeform in the year of his most famous win as “run-of-the-mill as Derby winners go”. However, the essay writer did concede that the manner of his win was “spectacular” and concluded that, “Few horses have won the race from such an unpromising position.”

Have a look at the replay from that glorious Wednesday afternoon at Epsom back in 1994.We think you'll agree.