The Irish Derby: Celebrating Ireland's Greatest Race

2015 | Sport & Leisure

First run in 1866, the Irish Derby at the Curragh is now one of the world's most prestigious horseraces, which customarily attracts the top horses from England and France as well as Ireland. The roll of honour includes many of the all-time greats of racing history - among them Ballymoss, Nijinsky, Shergar, El Gran Senor, and more recently Montjeu, Sinndar, Galileo, High Chaparral and Hurricane Run. And on the human front the race's history is populated by such figures as: 'Boss' Croker, whose name became a synonym for political corruption in New York and whose horse Orby in 1907 was the first to win both the Epsom Derby and the Irish Derby; Joe McGrath, whose enterprise in the early 1960s transformed the race into a major international event; Vincent O'Brien, greatest of all trainers, who won the Irish Derby six times and whose brother Phonsie trained the 1960 winner while Vincent was controversially suspended; and Aidan O'Brien, whose domination of the race in recent years - 11 winners between 1997 and 2014 - is itself sensational.

Sean Magee (Author)

Guy St.John Williams (Author)