A classroom for late Classic crammers - Keith Melrose assesses the significance of Lingfield's Derby Trial

Derby trials tend to fall into two main categories. The first is those of a high quality, such as the Dante at York and the 2,000 Guineas. As has been pointed out before, on Derby day we fixate too much on the intricacies of the Classic. Simply picking the best horse does just as good a job. This is why the Dante and the Guineas are the best Derby trials by most measures.

The Lingfield Derby Trial, as well as the Chester Vase, lead the second category. These are the Derby classrooms, where those with a bit to learn before Epsom cram for a Group 1 test on an idiosyncratic course.

You can see this tendency in the sort of horses who win this race. Taking the last ten winners, the median number of racecourse appearances before Lingfield has been three. Notably, the few who were more experienced include some of the race's most prominent recent winners. Anthony Van Dyck, who went on to win the Derby, had run seven times. Best Solution, who won the Caulfield Cup, was on his ninth run when he won this race.