Credible British hopes for the Derby are in short supply - and no wonder

Is the Derby done and dusted? Most pundits seem to think the trophy should be polished and posted to Bolshoi Ballet, care of Ballydoyle, where six of the last nine Derby winners have resided.

It is beginning to look that way. One or two extras may emerge from races at Goodwood and the Curragh this week, but with the front-line trials having been run, the central characters are in place.

It’s not so much that Bolshoi Ballet looks invincible, more that credible opposition appears in short supply. Many of those he beat in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial were also his opponents in the Ballysax the time before, and the form itself is hardly gilt-edged: Flying Visit, beaten two and a quarter lengths in the Ballysax, was nearly ten lengths adrift of Hurricane Lane in the Dante.