A new segment we are starting here at The Winners Enclosure is every Monday to look back on the racing from the week before and narrow it down to who deserves the best ride of the week from a horse and jockey perspective.
This week there were some seriously good performances over both the jumps and the flat but with it being the flat season and the better, more competitive contests are taking place we are edging towards that style of racing with this weeks pick.
With that in mind the stand out racing last week came from Epsom Downs with the Derby festival throwing up some superb racing that truly shows us why we love the sport.
There were some performances that were unlucky not to make the top spot that will have to settle for the minor honours but have already been mentioned in our Three Weekend Eye-catchers blog.
The rides that were unlucky were firstly the Derby performance by Seamie Heffernan on Anthony Van Dyck. The way the 46 year old managed to get the three year old over to the far side rail is what made the colt land the Classic.
Another ride that was very unlucky was Tom Marquand on board the Richard Hannon trained Anna Nerium. The four year old pretty much came from back to front in the straight on the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes to land the contest.
What made this ride even better was that it gave Hannon his 1000th winner in training and the way in which the horse battled to get up from that position was remarkable.
However, this weeks winner of TWE ride of the week and the first jockey, trainer and horse to win it is Defoe with Andrea Atzeni in the saddle for Roger Varian.
This was hands down our favourite performance of the week of racing for many different reasons. The first was Defoe has been that nearly horse that has never won a Group 1 and it looked like his chance had gone now a five year old but we were wrong.
Under a superb ride by Andres Atzeni the grey gelding stayed on over the 1 mile 4f trip to deny Ryan Moore and Kew Gardens from landing the Group 1 Coronation Cup that in the past has been won by the like of Cracksman, Highland Reel and Postponed.
Defoe was a huge shock winner of the Friday contest which again adds to the overall excitement and performance of it all that how good he was to be able to produce a run like this after everyone had ruled him out of the contest.
This weeks winner goes to Defoe and what deserved winner he is, check out the video of his performance and the ride Atzeni gave him to see him finally get that Group 1 title.
A bit of a turn-up in the Coronation Cup as Defoe - with @Atzenijockey squeezing through a gap late on - gets past Ryan Moore and Kew Gardens to land the Group 1 at @EpsomRacecourse pic.twitter.com/0ZIa0F0sqG
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 31, 2019
Credit - Racing TV