The birdsong is briefly interrupted as a pair of colts gallop by. Nothing too strong now, for the major work is done. Maltese Cross and Tenability breeze on up Newmarket's Al Bahathri, giving rise to some contented muttering from the father-and-son team watching on.Sam Haggas was only three years old and was “left at home” the day that Shaamit won the Derby for his parents William and Maureen 30 years ago. He plays a different role these days, as the buyer of his father's fifth Derby runner and racing manager to Maltese Cross's owner George Waud. “Sam can't sleep,” says William Haggas as he awaits his son's arrival in the yard before first lot on Tuesday morning. Some much-needed rain has fallen overnight and, gone five, daylight has punctured the dark clouds above. The trainer himself has no problem sleeping – not these days anyway. “Our days are long. I need six hours' sleep. So if I go to bed at nine, I wake up at three,” he says. It was a little different in the days of Shaamit, whose Derby day began for the Haggases with a work morning for horses bound for Royal Ascot.“It was an interesting time, but of course we were very naive,” Haggas recalls. “We were nine years into training and you thought you knew what you were doing, which clearly we didn't. But we were lucky and a lot of things just fell our way. “There was a thunderstorm the night before in Newmarket and it knocked out all the alarm clocks. Michael Hills, who was riding in the Derby, never woke up for our Royal Ascot gallop, but we hadn't slept a wink because we were a mixture of nerves and excitement.”The nerves would not have been helped by the fact that a bout of ringworm had meant that Shaamit, who had raced just twice at two, had been forced to miss his Derby trial at Lingfield. Henry Cecil came to the rescue and allowed Haggas to work Shaamit with his Derby favourite Dushyantor, who had been second to the Paul Kelleway-trained Glory Of Dancer in the Dante Stakes.“Henry always had lots of people around him on work mornings and it was very clear that Shaamit went best,” Haggas says. “I was riding out in those days, and I remember cantering away from Henry, thanking him very much, and I got to Ray McGinn on Shaamit and asked him if everything was alright, expecting him to say yes, and he said, 'No, governor, he's not fit.'“So then he worked with Glory Of Dancer on the July Course, and Glory Of Dancer had won the Dante but he wasn't a certain stayer, and Shaamit went much better than him. His work was excellent, but he hadn't run, so it was hard to gauge.”Those two pieces of work turned out to have held the key to that year's Derby. Shaamit followed the 1995 winner Lammtarra by winning on his first start of the year, chased home by Dushyantor, with subsequent St Leger winner Shantou taking third for John Gosden, and Glory Of Dancer finishing fourth. Shaamit wins the 1996 Derby from Dushyantor | Racingfotos Haggas's Ascot gallop worked out well, too, as Yeast went on to win the Royal Hunt Cup in the hands of Kieren Fallon. These days, the latter's son, Cieren, is on the jockeys' roster at Somerville Lodge and is aboard recent John Porter Stakes third Tenability as he accompanies Maltese Cross and Greg Cheyne on the Al Bahathri. Apart from the sons rising, what else has changed for Haggas over the last three decades?“The characters are different,” he says. “It was different then, but you always say that when you're young because you were looking up to the Bruce Hobbses of this world. Now I'm in my mid-60s. I suppose the younger trainers now…”He chooses his words carefully. “Not look up to me, but they don't want to pick a fight. The older trainers when I started weren't that approachable.”Haggas continues, “We had no all-weather gallops. The other day when we went on the Limekilns, and I was a bit worried that it was too firm, Richard Hills said, 'I remember working on here when it was brown because we had nowhere else to go.'“I think when you get older, you think it's never like it was, but it's probably better. It's probably kinder to the horses anyway. I think racing is in a really good place at the moment. We've obviously got teething problems at the BHA, but I think the Jockey Club are getting strong again. I think Ascot, York and Goodwood are strong. They're the proper players for the future of racing. They get it and they can afford it and they're getting in the crowds. So I think racing is improving, and I think the prize-money is pretty good, or better than it has been.”He points to the fact that 29 trainers in Britain accrued more than £1 million in prize-money last year but acknowledges, “The affordability checks are affecting it though, and the black market [betting] with bookmakers who don't pay tax. We are leaking tax, and the government don't get it.”These worries, in Derby week at least, can be pushed to the back of his mind. In front of Haggas stands a horse who has been crafted by the equine gods to take his place at Epsom. There is a hint of the perfect specimen that was Montjeu about him, and indeed he is to be found back in Maltese Cross's third generation. Closer up though is his sire, the 2009 Derby winner Sea The Stars, and damsire Camelot, the winner in 2012. Throw in the fact that Maltese Cross's dam Nabatea is a winning half-sister to the Deutsches Derby winner Nutan (Duke of Marmalade) and to the Grosser Preis von Berlin winner Nymphea (Dylan Thomas) and a pedigree replete with middle-distance class takes shape. The knowledge that the colt was one of those bold Philip Stauffenberg pinhooks and was bought as a foal for €200,000 makes it easy to surmise that Maltese Cross is a fairly faultless individual. Maltese Cross beats Derby rivals Balzac, second left, and Bay Of Brilliance, right, at Lingfield | Racingfotos Haggas says, “You want a good physique, and by that I mean not too small and not too large – medium size, with a good action, and a good brain. And the more I'm doing it, the more I think the brain is most important. All the real ones we've had always had a good brain.”In that category he includes two other offspring of Sea The Stars, his six-time Group 1 winner Baaeed and Irish Oaks winner Sea Of Class. “This chap,” he says of Maltese Cross, “he always sweats between his hind legs, he does it galloping, he sometimes does it in the morning, but he doesn't bother, he's got a good temperament, and he has the most beautiful action.“I'd hate to be on soft ground, but I think he'll cope with the track, no problem. He's well balanced, and so I think as long as he gets a clear run, which is what everyone wants, Tom [Marquand] won't panic, and I think he'll stay well. “His first run at Ascot, when he was second, he ran well, then he won, fought back well. And in that race at Newmarket as a two-year-old, it looked like if they'd gone another two furlongs, he'd have won easily. I'm not a big one for running them a mile and a quarter as two-year-olds. I think a mile's plenty, especially if you've got Classic aspirations.”Haggas admits to being “underwhelmed” at Maltese Cross's seasonal resumption at Newbury. “He won a neck and then at Lingfield, he won a neck again. Tom feels he's just one of those that does what he has to do. But he'll fight for you because he's relentless.”Maltese Cross will be carrying the colours of movie producer George Waud, a relatively new owner to the ranks, who has five horses in training with Haggas and George Boughey. The bridge between those two trainers is Sam Haggas, who has ploughed his own furrow as a bloodstock agent and is a noted judge of form.“George had been talking to Sam for some time, and he'd had a few secondhand horses that Sam bought him, and then two years ago, Sam didn't tell me, but George had obviously given him a budget to buy some yearlings,” Haggas says.“I saw [Maltese Cross], and Sam saw him independently, and I remember him vividly. He was a bloody lovely yearling, and all I thought was that somebody's bound to buy him, Wathnan maybe, so you're not going to buy him for 200,000 [gns]. He was a beautiful walker, and light on his feet, and anyway, Sam bought him for 350,000 [gns].“George backed Sam, and he's obviously found Maltese Cross, and he's got a good one with George Boughey, called El Vamos, who has won her only start. So he's done okay, and this horse is helping George to live the dream. It's terrific.” George Waud, second left, with Maltese Cross | Racingfotos He adds, “I've always said to anyone that listens that the mile-and-a-quarter, mile-and-a-half horses are the ones you want. Because if you get lucky, the opportunities are enormous. Look at Addeybb and Dubai Honour – they've won millions and given us untold fun.”Waud was clearly listening and now, in his own words, he is “going to the show”. Haggas has been there a few times already, and has even stolen the show at his first attempt, but it never gets old.“I'm the second-longest-serving trainer in Newmarket after Sir Mark [Prescott],” he says. “I say to the young pups, 'I've been standing on Warren Hill watching horses go by for longer than you've been alive.' It's fabulous, and there's a really fun crop of young trainers who are doing well here. And that's really good for the future of Newmarket, which I care about more and more as I get older.”At Somerville Lodge, where he has been based throughout his 39-year training career, the most notable change has been expansion, to around five times the number of horses on the books since Shaamit's day. The facilities at Haggas's disposal now incorporate the neighbouring Hurworth House and Woodlands Stables, formerly the domain of Harry 'Tom' Thomson Jones, and Flint Cottage Stables just around the corner.He says, “The basics still apply, but I've surrounded myself with good people. You are then left to concentrate on what you consider your strengths. I don't do data, but we have people who do. Gail [Hacking] and Issy [Paul] understand it, and they can give me the relevant data. I have Sam as well. He comes at it independently and rates every horse, so I get a different line from him. Gail's good in that she will flag up stuff that I don't want to hear and not let go.”So what does he consider to be his own strengths? “I think I understand the [race] programme. I'm not in a rush – I'm more for a career than for a day, but we can get them ready for a day. I would be a planner and say, 'Right, that's his race.' But I can be indecisive, especially if they're not running well.“Maureen's unbelievable at stuff in the yard. I don't know how much they're fed, but I know if they look like they need more food or less training. When we look round, which we still do a lot, it's not very fashionable but we still enjoy it, and we walk round as a team, Maureen and the assistants and me. We question each other and I'm listening to what the lad says and what the rider says and I try to take what I need.”Like his Derby horse, Haggas appears to have the temperament for the job. “I don't have time to worry,” he says. “I've got a sign in my office that says 'Worry is a futile emotion.'”And just like 30 years ago, he still has a Royal Ascot team to consider, albeit a slightly larger one. As Maltese Cross walks home from his final piece of work, Haggas shows a neat turn of foot himself to make it across town to Warren Hill to run his eye over the likes of More Thunder, Elmonjed, Almeraq, Earth Shot, Crown Of Oaks, and Hamish. As he reels off the names of the passing string, he adds, “Aren't we lucky?” It's a question that doesn't require an answer, especially in a week when Haggas is going back to the show. The post Back to the Show: Shades of Shaamit as Haggas Primes Maltese Cross for the Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.