Former AFL Premiership winning coach Dennis Pagan pulled off a masterstroke in the 2020 Victoria Derby results with the blinkers going on his gun young stayer Johnny Get Angry who went on to win the time-honoured classic as a 20/1 outsider in betting.

Johnny Get Angry won the 2020 Victoria Derby at 20/1 in a massive performance for apprentice hoop Lachie King. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.

Pagan has only been training horses for 12 months and can already call himself a Derby winning horseman thanks to the outstanding performance by Tavistock gelding Johnny Get Angry and apprentice hoop Lachie King.

King retained the ride on the up-and-coming stayer in the Group 1 $2 million AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) and did not disappoint, Johnny Get Angry winning at blowout odds in an improved effort on his last start third to Cherry Tortoni in the Group 1 Moonee Valley Vase (2040m).

Relishing the step-up to 2500m and the addition of blinkers keeping him focused, the Derby winner was far too strong late surging clear for a commanding victory over the Matt Cumani-trained Hit The Shot coming off that third in the Caulfield Classic.

In third rounding out the Victoria Derby trifecta this Melbourne Cup Carnival was the beaten favourite for Danny O’Brien, Young Werther, who finished just ahead of the Vase winner Cherry Tortoni who made up all the ground from the back of the field.

One of O’Brien’s other runners, Kenzan, led the VRC Derby field around in a notified change of tactics going hard out early before slowing the pace down to nearly a crawl mid-race.

King meanwhile had Johnny Get Angry settled midfield, while Young Werther was tracking well fifth one off the fence.

Everywhere the favourite went, King followed tracking Young Werther and his hoop Damien Oliver into the turn.

Young Werther had every chance hitting the lead 300m out, but Johnny Get Angry was right there and the two horses at opposite ends of betting went stride for stride over the final furlong.

In an outstanding effort, it was the roughie that pulled clear and won in a huge ride by King in a wonderful story for this year’s Derby result.

“It’s just unbelievable to be honest, a bit emotional, it’s just amazing,” King, who joined his father Steven King (Helenus, 2020) on the VRC Derby winning jockeys’ honour roll, told the media post-win.

“We thought we could win today it was just whether we could pull it off and everything just went to plan, it was a fairy tale.

“I was just going too good and I thought ‘jeez I have to time this right’ because I knew Ollie could pull something out and then when I let him down, he (Johnny Get Angry) just exploded for me with the blinkers on.

“It’s just unbelievable. I just can’t explain it.

“I just happened to be on the back of the favourite and I popped out early and he just towed me to the front and it was just all over.”

2020 Victoria Derby Results

	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	3	JOHNNY GET ANGRY (NZ)	Denis Pagan	Lachlan King (a)		5	57kg		$21
	2	6	HIT THE SHOT	Matt Cumani	Fred W Kersley	1L	9	57kg		$7
	3	5	YOUNG WERTHER (NZ)	Danny O’Brien	Damien Oliver	1.2L	4	57kg		$3.40F
	4	1	CHERRY TORTONI	Patrick Payne	Billy Egan	1.5L	14	57kg		$3.60
	5	4	LET’S KARAKA DEEL (NZ)	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	John Allen	2.25L	3	57kg		$13
	6	11	TOKEN SPIRIT	Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock	Damian Lane	2.55L	11	57kg		$101
	7	2	ALBARADO (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Mark Zahra	5.05L	8	57kg		$11
	8	7	CETSHWAYO	Danny O’Brien	Jamie Kah	5.25L	10	57kg		$12
	9	13	WISAKA	Michael Moroney	Ben Melham	7L	2	57kg		$61
	10	10	TOUR OF DUTY	Michael Moroney	James McDonald	7.5L	13	57kg		$31
	11	8	REDWOOD SHADOW (NZ)	Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr)	Jye McNeil	8.5L	12	57kg		$21
	12	9	WERTHEIMER (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Hugh Bowman	8.9L	6	57kg		$41
	13	14	KENZAN	Danny O’Brien	Daniel Moor	10.9L	1	57kg		$91
	14	12	BORN TO SUCCEED	Saab Hasan	Michael Walker	11.65L	7	57kg		$101

Table Credit: Racing Australia.