Sometimes, occasionally, you get a glimpse, an insight into why horse racing people seem to spend their lives in thrall to their game and its equine heroes.

When Sea The Stars rocketed away from the field in the last furlong of yesterday's Epsom Derby, you got the shock of his power, an instant hit of the sheer speed which makes these animals so beloved by their followers.

It was similar to the jolt, the breath-taking belt to the solar plexus you experience when the world's fastest men spring from their blocks in an Olympic 100m final and suddenly an Usain Bolt finds another gear that leaves these kings of speed in his wake.

We join Jim McGrath of the BBC as the runners and riders bolt from their stalls and the Derby is launched.

". . . then in third is Age of Aquarius, his big white face, pink cap on the outside, Gan Amhras has taken up fourth just behind in the white jacket, followed by Sea The Stars, Mick Kinane settling fifth on the inner, followed by Montaff as they go through the first three furlongs."

The race, like all sprints, is going faster than he can call so that by the time the words are out of his mouth, they are already history, no longer news.

"As they reach the highest point of the course now, six-and-a-half furlongs left to go in the Derby and Golden Sword, the Chester Vase winner, is blazing a trail by two lengths to the Lingfield Derby trial winner Age of Aquarius. Four or five lengths away is Godolphin's Kite Wood up on the outside, Mick Kinane has Sea The Stars in a beautiful fourth on the rails, next is Montaff followed by Fame And Glory, the green jacket of Debussy on the inside."

We are told before the race that there is €2m riding on Sea The Stars with Paddy Power bookmakers in Ireland. So we can imagine all at Paddy Power clenching their buttocks with the news that Kinane has Sea The Stars positioned "in a beautiful fourth" on the rails. It doesn't get any better for them either.

"(Voice rising ) Sea The Stars is travelling very smoothly for Mick Kinane, then behind them Fame And Glory, Debussy and further back in the field battling on is Rip Van Winkle. And Crowded House sticking to the outside, Golden Sword, though, is the one to catch, they race inside the three-furlong and it's Golden Sword clear . . . "

It's Golden Sword clear but not for much longer because Kinane's yellow jacket is starting to loom on its shoulder.

"It's Sea The Stars, though, who takes it up with a furlong to go, trying hard Fame and Glory from Golden Sword and Rip Van Winkle, but Sea The Stars is going to win the Guineas-Derby double, Fame And Glory is second, third Masterofthehorse . . . it's a blanket finish for the places but no doubt about the winner."

And it's over in a flash, just like that. Michael Kinane is almost 50, this was his 21st Derby, and you could only imagine the exhilaration he felt when Sea The Stars found that extra gear and made his devastating surge for the post.

Kinane, says McGrath, is not renowned for his smiling -- "but he's certainly smiling now." The man has just had the ride of his life. And the aficionados are gushing like they've just seen Pegasus with a Tipperary man on board.

"He had an armchair ride," said McGrath, "once he got his position, fourth on the rails, it was poetry in motion, this horse who has a bomb-proof temperament, he travelled beautifully throughout."

Kinane said: "He was just going so easy all the way, he was probably nearly too good, it was just in slow motion for him, I just had to keep him, he has a serious cruise over any distance. When this fella came along last May, I thought 'oh, he's put five years back on me.'"

Two weeks from his 50th birthday, when Kinane knew that a horse of this calibre was coming his way 12 months ago, he took to running five miles a day just to make sure he was in the physical condition necessary to command an animal with this sort of power and potential. Sea The Stars, said

the jockey, had made him feel young again.

Winning the Epsom Derby made the horse worth, according to McGrath, at least £40m to his owner; the owner being a 27-year-old native of Hong Kong, who runs night clubs, by the name of Christopher Tsui. Sea The Stars will now become a one-man lounge lizard for fillies the world over.

Back in the winners' enclosure, the humans were swooning at his aristocratic bearing: "And look at the proud head of that stallion," cooed McGrath. "A beautiful, beautiful horse," added Willie Carson.

And Clare Balding, needless to say, was equally smitten. "And I know this sounds daft because names don't mean anything but Sea The Stars is the name of the champion and that is the head of a champion. He's just taking it all in, he's looking at the crowd saying 'Is this for me? Is this for me? Because you, my son, have just won the Derby."

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