Crowley Calls It: “Diore Lia’s participation in the Derby makes a mockery of the race”

Jim Crowley runs us through his thoughts on Investec Oaks day

Diore Lia’s participation in the Investec Derby makes a mockery of the race and of the system. The BHA need to get their act together and make sure this can’t happen again. They have rules to say that inexperienced riders can’t ride in the Grand National, and criteria that have to be met by the horses taking part too, yet any horse can run in the Derby. There have been outsiders before in the race but nothing quite as ridiculous as this.    

There should have been a rule in place that a horse has to be rated above 90 to run in the Derby, or if a horse hasn’t got a rating then its participation should be approved by an expert panel. I don’t agree with running big outsiders in races like this. I can’t turn up to a Formula One Grand Prix in my car and line up next to Lewis Hamilton.

I know the public love to see big outsiders but they probably don’t appreciate the dangers of it. It’s all well and good watching it on telly and thinking it’s romantic but they don’t have to ride alongside it or get stuck behind it coming down Tattenham Hill. There is only one Derby and it is so important for a horse’s stallion career you really don’t want to be getting stuck behind or hampered by a 1000/1 shot.

The other aspect of this which hasn’t really been thought about is the fact that there will be 18 colts walking round the paddock and one filly, a filly that shouldn’t even be in the race.  That is not fair on the colts that may well get worked up or distracted by the presence of this filly just minutes before the race.  Of course if there was a highly rated filly in the race that deserved her place, then that’s fair enough, but this filly has no right being in this race yet could impact on the chances of some of the other horses even before the race starts let alone during the race.