Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry

Chapter 9: An American Invasion at Epsom

135 Chapter 9 An American Invasion at Epsom Never Say Die’s progeny had only mixed success as runners overall , but he was the leading sire in Great Britain in 1962. That year, his son Larkspur won the Epsom Derby for Irish trainer Vincent O’Brien (the first of six Derby wins in his legendary career ) and American owner Raymond R. Guest.1 With Larkspur’s victory, Never Say Die became the first Epsom Derby winner to sire an Epsom Derby winner since Blenheim II’s son Mahmoud won the 1936 Derby for the Aga Khan. The results of the 1962 Derby made headlines around the world, and not only because it was the first Derby victory for an American owner since Never Say Die’s win eight years earlier. Six horses finished the race riderless , and one had to be destroyed after breaking its leg in an ugly pileup at Tattenham Corner. Race fans jumped fences to attend to the fallen jockeys until the ambulances arrived. Winning rider Neville Sellwood described his ride more in terms of survival than of triumph. “The horses all fell right in front of me,” he recalled. “I had a wonderful escape. Somehow we managed to get through that heap of kicking horses. Once we got into the straight, I knew we would win.”2 That same day, just a few miles away from the mess at Ep- Never Say Die 136 som, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Pete Best, having just returned from their final long-term engagement in Hamburg, Germany, made their first trip to Abbey Road studios in London to record some demo tracks for what would eventually become the Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me. Less than three months later, Best was sacked as the band’s drummer and replaced by Ringo Starr. Following the modest success of their first single, “Love Me Do,” in the fall of 1962, the Beatles built a huge following in Britain. By 1964, “Beatlemania” had spread worldwide. That year, six Beatles singles reached the top of the American pop charts. The next year they had five more number-one hits.3 Even after the group stopped touring in 1966, it continued to produce chart-topping records, including the groundbreaking LPs Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Meanwhile, Pete Best had survived a suicide attempt at the height of Beatlemania and would be out of the music busiThe Beatles, whose humble beginnings included Mona Best’s Liverpool coffee club, had achieved global fame by the mid-1960s. (Library of Congress) An American Invasion at Epsom 137 ness by year’s end. The lads from Liverpool were revolutionizing rock and roll, whose roots were so deeply American, just as Americans were starting to achieve similar sustained success in England , the birthplace of Thoroughbred racing, at the Epsom Derby. In the spring of 1968 the Beatles returned from their wellpublicized spiritual retreat to India. As the group was beginning work on a new album that would eventually be popularly known as the White Album, Lester Piggott won his fourth English Derby with an “electrifying surge in the final yards” on Sir Ivor, who was owned and trained by the same combination that had captured the Derby six years earlier with Never Say Die’s son Larkspur.4 At the start of the race, Piggott urged Sir Ivor quickly out of the starting gate (first introduced to the Derby the year before) and secured a position in the middle of the pack in the early going . The front-runners began to fade as the field headed downPete Best, circa 2006. Unceremoniously ousted from the group prior to the onset of Beatlemania, Best temporarily abandoned music in the late 1960s but returned to professional drumming two decades later. Never Say Die 138 hill toward Tattenham Corner. Piggott improved his position but still trailed long-distance specialist Connaught by a good margin . With two furlongs to go, Piggott and Sir Ivor were still four lengths behind the leader. It was time to move, so Piggott pulled his horse to the outside to give him room for a final burst of speed. For a moment, the horse did not respond; then a light seemed to go on in the horse’s head, and he understood what was being asked of him. Sir Ivor flew past Connaught with 100 yards to the finish and cruised...