CAN ANYONE COMPLETE A DERBY DOUBLE?

An elite club of classic winners potentially awaits this year's Epsom victor

-  Andrew Newton

The Epsom Derby these days is always run on the following day to the Epsom Oaks – this year on Saturday June 3 and just like the Oaks does with the 1000 Guineas – the Derby is a race the Newmarket Guineas (2000) associates with.

However, despite this link, in recent years only Sea The Stars (2009) and Camelot (2012) have won both the 1000 Guineas and the Oaks – with Nashwan (1989) and Nijinsky (1970) also the only horses before them to win the two Classics since 1970.

In recent times, five of the last 21 Epsom Derby winners contested the 2,000 Guineas the previous month, but, as many know there is a significant step up in trip by half-a-mile from the Guineas to the Derby in the space of just a month.

With that in mind, horses will need to prove then can stay the extra distance and with most yet to tackle 1m4f then looking at their breeding can often help here.

This year’s 2,000 Guineas winner, Chaldean, isn’t expected to step up in trip though and is more likely heading to Royal Ascot for the St James’s Palace Stakes on June 20.

There are also other key trial races, that are run over longer trips than the Guineas, that connections like to target as Derby prep races.

One of the best guides to the Epsom Derby in recent times has been the Dante Stakes – run at York last month (May 18).