2GS The Sunday Times June 5, 2022 11Stoute thought, “That was OK.” The
Dante has long been a reliable Derby
trial and his horse couldn’t have done
it better. Mostly, with really good
horses, the challenge is not to mess
things up and, better than perhaps
any trainer, Stoute can be relied upon
in this regard.
Asked whether Desert Crown could
be a special horse, he gave the kind of
answer he’s been giving to racing jour-
nalists for decades. “Well, you have to
remember this was just his third race.
He’s brimful of promise. Will that do?”
he asked, and then gave us the belly
laugh that has long made him one of
racing’s most popular figures.
As for his assessment of Desert
Crown, Stoute has never been one to
indulge in the hyperbole that is as
much a part of racing as the saddles
and silks.
This victory and this new cham-
pion have come at a good time in the
trainer’s life. Two years ago his
beloved partner, Coral, died and, so
central had Coral been to his life,
many wondered what the future
would hold for him.
There have been recent seasons,
too, where he just didn’t have the one
great horse that could have carried
the flag for his yard.
In such times people wonder if
maybe the great trainer has lost his
touch. Eleven years had passed since
Workforce, his previous Derby
winner.
As quietly spoken and as under-
stated as he is, Stoute is hugely
competitive and, from the way he
prepared his latest champion, it is
clear he never lost his self-belief.
All that he had lacked was a poten-
tially great horse.
Then Desert Crown came along
and Stoute demonstrated for the
umpteenth time that when it comes to
turning potential into a champion,
there are few better.‘It is clear Stoute
never lost his
self-belief. All that
he had lacked was
a potentially
great horse’ALAN CROWHURSTLethal crosses,
curls, crime and
punishment —
Alonso’s tale
is worthy
of Netflix
treatment
It is the time of year for lists and
awards and tomorrow, on The Game,
The Times’s football podcast, we will
deliver various accolades, including
for the unsung hero of the season.
My nomination will be Marcos
Alonso, the Chelsea defender whose
departure for Barcelona appears
imminent. I am not sure Chelsea
would have qualified for the
Champions League had it not been
for the 31-year-old. Ben Chilwell was
widely expected to start the season as
the left wing back, but he returned
from England duty dispirited at not
playing a single minute for
Gareth Southgate at Euro
2020 while Alonso had been
quietly impressing Thomas
Tuchel, the head coach, in
pre-season training.
Indeed, even though
the Spain player excelled
in the wing back’s role, the
narrative was all about
Chilwell’s fight to
regain his place and
the former LeicesterCity full back having to wait until
October for his first start. But a
month later he suffered a serious
knee injury, ruling him out for the
rest of the campaign. Fortunately for
Tuchel, Alonso was able to slot into
the side with his elegantly deceptive
runs and keen eye for a killer cross.
Often, when Chelsea failed to
sparkle, it was Alonso who provided
the spirited forays down the flank
that reignited a performance. He had
been largely ignored by Frank
Lampard but dovetailed beautifully
into Tuchel’s wing back system. Still,
more TV analysis time was spent on
how Mohamed Salah outwitted him
in January at Stamford Bridge than on
anything he had done well.
Alonso is quite literally unsung
despite being the west London club’s
unlikely hero. In fact, the songs you
will hear about the Spaniard are sung
by away fans who, when not booing
him, chant: “We know what you did.”
This refers to the car accident that
led to the death of a young woman in
Madrid in 2011 when Alonso was 20years old and playing for Bolton
Wanderers. He was found guilty of
speeding and of being over the
alcohol limit, fined £50,000 and
banned from driving but not jailed.
For many, there is no justice in that
level of punishment.
Even without the court case,
Alonso, with his incredible sculpted
mop of curls, is not exactly loveable.
His confident demeanour can be
misinterpreted as entitlement. He is,
after all, football royalty, being the
son of Marcos Alonso Peña, the
former Barcelona and Atletico
Madrid midfielder, and the grandson
of Marquitos, who scored for Real
Madrid in the first European Cupfinal and won the competition five
times. In 2018 the Chelsea defender
became the first third-generation
player to be capped by Spain.
And then, in September, Alonso
refused to take a knee in the fight
against racism. No one can
convincingly argue he has no right to
freedom of expression but it was
slightly odd that he did not discuss
his stance with his team-mates, some
of whom have suffered racist abuse.
Alonso said the gesture was “losing
a bit of strength” and he preferred to
point to the “No Room for Racism”
badge on his shirt. However, I suspect
most white players are of the view
that they should take their lead from
black colleagues.
The story of Alonso is surely one
worthy of the Netflix treatment for it
encompasses genetics, talent,
trophies, controversy, crime and
punishment. Chelsea need Alonso
but his desire to return to Spain is
hardly a surprise. Excellent players
can only be unsung for so long before
yearning for recognition.‘When Chelsea failed
to sparkle, Alonso
often reignited a
performance with
his spirited forays’Alyson
Rudd
Dreams matter. For more than
200 years, less than three
midsummer minutes on Epsom
Downs have had the capacity to put
horse and jockey into legend. That’s
the challenge the Derby sends and
the good news is that Desert Crown
just might be up for meeting it.
For this, just the third race of the
colt’s still unbeaten career, was a
triumph not only of itself but of what
might be yet to come. The
inexperience showed only in the jig-
jog tension and white flecks of sweat
before the start. In the race, it was
mastery, not callowness, that was on
show. To claim the higher echelons of
sport you need to be that bit quicker,
stronger and more adaptive than the
others. Desert Crown’s Derby
journey was just that.
Richard Kingscote, for whom
yesterday’s ride earned him a place at
the top table, was able to jump his
partner out of the stalls so fast that he
could decide his own position. Bar
one temporary blip at the top of the
hill, he was then in command. In the
straight, it was dream time.
Ahead of him greatness waits.
Galileo, one of the finest of this
century’s Derby winners, had
actually had three runs before
scoring in not dissimilar fashion in- He followed it up with the Irish
Derby and the King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth Stakes, before
becoming the most fabled sire of
modern times. If Desert Crown scales
those next two logical targets he, too,
may take his place up in the Derby’s
own Valhalla. For this is what is on
offer. No other major modern event
has a gallery of heroes stretching two
Sixth triumph for Stoute
brings dreams of greatness
Stoute enjoys his sixth Derby success yesterday with Princess AnneBROUGH
SCOTT2010, Workforce set the current race
record with a similar preparation.
Other trainers just shake their heads
in admiration. His achievement is
especially welcome because the
Derby has to work against an ebbing
tide. Up until the 1930s, it was the
greatest single event in the sporting
calendar. When I first came here as a
boy to wave a flag at Tattenham
Corner in 1953, it was the climax of
the coronation week. When I
presented it on television in the 1970s
and 1980s, it was still a massive
gathering. But it is a bit different now.
Yesterday, there were green spaces
at Epsom where once were crowds.
And the event did not lead all the
sporting pages or reports. The pull
and the excitement cannot be as wide
as before, but it should still be
treasured for what it has.
For, of course, the Derby is not
what it was. But for one more June
afternoon, what Desert Crown,
Kingscote and Stoute put together at
Epsom could still stake a claim to
being, at least, somewhere near the
centre of the sporting universe.centuries back. The measurements
stretch to Ormonde, Gainsborough
and Nijinsky; Fred Archer, Steve
Donoghue and Lester Piggott; John
Porter, Fred Darling and Vincent
O’Brien: matching them cannot
come lightly.
For Desert Crown, the tests come
soon. By the end of this season and, if
the financial siren call of stud can be
avoided, after next, he has the
chance to establish the clear
superiority he showed yesterday.
For Kingscote, 35, the slow climb
to this first and highest peak has to be
followed by similar ascents.
But for 76-year-old Sir Michael
Stoute, this sixth and sweetest and
most poignant of his Derby wins, is
only confirmation that legends live
on. Poignant, because it was
achieved without the presence of his
long-time partner, Coral Pritchard
Gordon, and sweet because, with the
passing of the years and the burdens
of his grief, there were suggestions
that his glory days were now behind
him. But here was reassurance that
the genius had not lost his touch. In