There have never been consecutive Irish winners of the Epsom Derby but there will be some very long faces down Tipperary way if Galileo doesn't successfully follow in Sinndar's giant footsteps this afternoon.
Michael Kinane will be on Galileo's back when the stalls open at 3.50, but even though the unbeaten colt doesn't know it, there is a lot more riding on his classically bred frame than just the 11 times champion jockey.
John Magnier's confirmation yesterday that he has bought into the stud rights of the other Derby fancy Golan for a reputed $15 million bid, indicates the financial implications of winning around racing's most famous and idiosyncratic race track.
The influence of the breeding shed will also make itself felt by Magnier's champion stallion, Sadler's Wells, sire of a joint world record 45 different Group One winners, trying once again to win the one major race to have eluded all his progeny up to now.
There is also the not insubstantial pressure that comes from competing for a race worth a cool £1 million in itself, the chance of a rare Derby-Oaks double, and the possibility of becoming the 11th Irish winner of the race since the second World War.
But while all the figures and statistics will count for nothing when those gates open, the undeniable fact is that the pressure is so real because Galileo's chance of winning is widely regarded as being even more real.
The son of the Arc winner Urban Sea has been touted as a live Derby candidate ever since his 14 length winning debut in October and two Leopardstown victories have only added to the stratospheric opinion held of him in Ballydoyle.
"He has always looked the part, right from day one. He was always going to be a special horse," Aidan O'Brien conceded yesterday. Despite four classic victories already this year, the 31-year-old trainer remains a very cautious man, which makes his undisguised admiration of Galileo all the more significant.
"Everything has gone to plan with him this season. It was genuine good to firm ground when he won the Derrinstown and he is such a lovely actioned horse I can't imagine the going will be a problem," O'Brien added.
Saffron Walden's seventh in 1999 has been the best position achieved by five previous O'Brien-trained Derby runners while the other Irish interest in the race, Cashel Bay, will be a first Derby runner for the Co Meath based permit holder Luke Comer.
Only the most optimistic can see Comer's challenge getting within an ass's roar of the winners enclosure and instead it looks like Michael Stoute and Barry Hills who will supply Galileo's biggest dangers.
Golan's 2,000 Guineas success was brilliant but his work since has been patchy and there must be a slight doubt about his stamina. It's also a worry that his sire Spectrum couldn't handle Epsom at all in 1995 and broke down badly.
The Dante winner Dilshaan would provide a fairytale double up for Sinndar's rider John Murtagh but if fate finally chooses to be kind to Barry Hills in the Derby, he has four ready to take advantage.
The Lingfield Trial winner Perfect Sunday looks the best of them but ideal looking each way type though he is, Derby success usually demands a class horse. Galileo can prove he is just that.
