New Approach lands thrilling Derby triumph

New Approach gave Irish trainer Jim Bolger and jockey Kevin Manning their first success in the Vodafone Derby with a game victory at Epsom.

The English and Irish 2000 Guineas runner-up, sent off at 5-1, just held the persistent challenge of Sir Michael Stoute's Tartan Bearer (6-1), ridden by Ryan Moore, by half a length.

Another Irish runner, Casual Conquest, the 7-2 favourite, was four and a half lengths away in third.

Alan Devonshire and Bashkirov were quickly away but it was the rank outsider Maidstone Mixture who made the running as the field settled down.

Once the latter's moment of glory had gone it was Bashkirov who went on before Kandahar Run hit the front ahead of Doctor Fremantle as the runners approached Tattenham Corner.

But the pack soon closed in when they straightened up and Tartan Bearer made his bid two furlongs out.

Meanwhile, New Approach had moved up from the rear as Manning switched him from the outside to the far rail.

The race was between New Approach and Tartan Bearer in the final furlong and it was last season's champion two-year-old who stayed on the stronger to land the ultimate prize for owner Princess Haya of Jordan, wife of Sheikh Mohammed.

Manning told BBC Sport: 'He has got a serious, serious engine. He has always been crying out for this trip.'

'He took a bit of a tug early on and got further back than I would have liked, but coming down the hill I had loads of horse and just hoped the gaps would come.

'He's just very, very classy. He gets a mile and a half but he is very pacy. To do what he has done he has to be very pacy.

'The ground in the Irish Guineas was just way too firm for him. To win this is every jockey's dream.'

The win completed one of the greatest turnarounds in racing history as for so long this season New Approach was going to swerve Epsom.

Bolger had said at a media event in April he was an unlikely runner, and only the week before the race he left the horse in the Classic 'by mistake.'

He said: 'It (winning the Derby) is very special. I thought before the race it would be up there with the best. I very willingly say (now) it is the best.

'There is no need to emphasise the mistake. It was the biggest mistake I have made in a long time. But it was fortuitous and it has worked out for the best.

'I am just extremely lucky and thankful I did make the mistake.

'I admitted the mistake from the word go and I don't see why people should have had such a big problem. I put my hands up and admitted the mistake.'