Evergreen Gosden still ‘hungry’

John Gosden may have plundered most of the sport’s biggest prizes, but his hunger for big-race success remains undiminished.

Born in Lewes, Sussex, in 1951, Gosden spent his early racing career assisting legendary trainers Vincent O’Brien and Sir Noel Murless before making the bold call of moving to California to go it alone.

It proved a successful risk, with Gosden training over 600 winners Stateside, but he decided to return home to Newmarket in the late 1980s, from where he has firmly established himself amongst the training elite.

Having tasted success in all corners of the globe, the master of Clarehaven Stables is better placed than most to assess what it takes to win the Investec Derby, a race he first won with Benny The Dip in 1997 before ending the 18-year wait for another with the brilliant Golden Horn 12 months ago.

“In the 1990s we had a lot of horses placed in the Derby, and then we did finally win it,” he said.

“The thing about the Derby is, you need a particular type of horse. You’ve got to have great balance, agility, a lot of tactical speed, a great turn of foot and you’ve got to stay.

“I suppose a lot of the horses I had weren’t capable of doing that over a mile and half around Epsom, but last year up came a horse who is bred to be a miler.”

Golden Horn must go down as one of the finest middle-distance performers of recent times, and yet it could have been so different.

By Gosden’s own admission, had his handsome colt not suffered a late-season setback as a juvenile, he may never have stepped up beyond a mile.

However, an astonishingly impressive victory over stable companion and subsequent Irish Derby hero Jack Hobbs in the Dante Stakes at York put him right in the Derby picture and after plenty of toing and froing between Gosden and owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer, he was eventually supplemented for Epsom.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“In truth, he (Golden Horn) might have run in the 2000 Guineas had he not pulled a muscle on August 23 and only ran …

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