When Irish eyes are smiling and a certain jockey's left leg is giving it that almost imperceptible but nevertheless trademark swivel, it's as sure as rain at The Curragh on Derby day that John Egan is back among the winners.
Yesterday the razor-sharp Irishman, one of the riding success stories of the season, took his tally to a terrific 25 when successful on the John Moore-trained Monards in the final event at Sha Tin. Egan had earlier won the second race on Andy Leung Ting-wah's Chuk Way - a low-grade handicapper who goes better for him than anyone else.
'I can normally think of something more original but it's so true, it's a funny old game,' laughed Egan after the last.
'My father has been here for 10 days and only went home last night. He took in two meetings and I couldn't ride a winner for love or money. He's been a big influence on my life let alone my career and I would have given anything for him to have been here for today's double.'
Egan, a trackaholic, was also battling back from the lingering effects of a flu-type virus - so bad that yesterday he took his first morning off trackwork since he arrived in mid-August.
'I'd never quite got over this bug I had at Christmas time and this week it came back pretty hard. I just had to have a complete night's sleep to do justice to my mounts this afternoon. I feel like a million dollars now. You can have all the Beechams, Lemsips and Panadols in the world but there's nothing like a double to put you right.'
