HORSE RACING: Immediately after High Chaparral flashed past the winning post, the Paddy Power firm displayed its eye for publicity with a 3 to 1 quote about Aidan O'Brien winning the Derby again next year. The price was cut yesterday to 5 to 2.

That is 5 to 2 about one of the hundred or so two-year-olds that are chomping their breakfasts at Ballydoyle this morning being better than any of the other 10,000 thoroughbreds of their year. And the price looks set to get shorter.

That's the sort of loyalty and belief that O'Brien has inspired in the seven years he has been at the helm of Ballydoyle.

A total of eight Derby winners have now been trained at that legendary equine academy set up by Vincent O'Brien, but even he never trained a pair of them in a row, never mind saddle the first two in the one year.

Punters, however, have long cottoned on they are not dealing with the norm here. In fact it's not that fanciful to imagine idols of the 32-year-old from Clonroche springing up in bookies shops around the country: staring down at us like some bespectacled Buddha.

Scribblers are fond of using grandiose words like epoch and benchmark, but who knows where the achievements of this quiet enigma will end?

One thing is odds-on, however, and that is that such phrases will still be trotted out long after High Chaparral's two lengths defeat of Hawk Wing is just a distant and happy memory.

Derby 2002 may be just the latest instalment of a dominance so total that, the very word itself could be too watery a description. Hence, we suppose, the 5 to 2.

John Magnier and Michael Tabor would not appreciate such odds, but then they work with different types of figures.

Ten days ago one of those 100 two-year-olds made his debut at Cork. Warhol cost $4 million and got stuffed. Never mind, there is a $6m horse waiting in line to take up the slack.

That is the proof that the ammunition being supplied to O'Brien from Magnier's pocket is the most powerful in the world, but even the knockers could hardly imagine a steadier aim.

The Coolmore supremo certainly can't and Magnier's post-race response to questions about the validity of running more than one horse in the top races is all the validation his trainer will want: "I'd have settled out of court for this!"

But what would Michael Kinane give for the ability to appeal Thursday's fateful call that saw him pick Hawk Wing over High Chaparral.

His worst fears were confirmed as the speed horse travelled beautifully to a challenging position and then emptied faster than the pockets of those who made him favourite.

"Hawk Wing just couldn't get home on that ground. It was too soft," said Kinane, who did his best to look on the upside. "It was always the danger he wouldn't stay , but he is still a very exciting horse. He is very special and there is a lot to look forward to."

John Murtagh was happy to look back, however, at his second Derby triumph in three years and further proof of his ability to perform when the pressure is intense.

"My horse was first in the stalls and didn't jump out as well as I wanted. I was behind Mick, and I would have thought it would be the other way round, but I told myself there was a good pace and not to panic," Murtagh reported

That pace was made by Moon Ballad, who still led early in the straight. By then, however, High Chaparral had raced around Hawk Wing down the hill and kicked for home in the hope of getting his stable companion off the bridle.

For a long time it didn't look like working. Kinane was motionless until the two-furlong pole, but he was hanging on to very little. Hawk Wing got to within a head of High Chaparral and then punctured.

"When Mick came to me I always felt there would only be one winner. This is a seriously good horse who has got a great heart and a great will to win," Murtagh said.

O'Brien will be hoping the bookies are right and that lurking among the youngsters at home is a colt with the same sort of heart and will.

If there is, O'Brien will become the first to saddle an Epsom Derby hat-trick. But he was happy yesterday to praise his two current stars.

"I honestly could not split the two of them coming in ," he said. "They are two very good colts and really they were both winners at Epsom because they both proved themselves to be exceptional".

EPSOM DERBY

1 HIGH CHAPARRAL (7/2) ... J P Murtagh

2 HAWK WING (9/4 fav) ... M J Kinane

3 MOON BALLAD (20/1) ... J P Spencer