THE Derby on the same day as the Oaks, not four days before it or one day after it. The Eclipse the day after the Derby, on a Sunday, with no three-year-olds allowed, and not many people. Strange times indeed.

The Investec Derby may be a month later than it usually is, but we don’t have any more evidence than we usually have. Only four of the 16 runners have run more than once this season.

We have the Guineas winner (also last year’s Vertem Futurity Trophy winner) in today’s line-up. That’s expected. We have the Lingfield Derby Trial winner, the Irish Guineas runner-up, the Cocked Hat Stakes winner. Nothing overly extraordinary about any of that either. But we also have the Hampton Court winner and the King Edward VII first, third and fourth. Now that is extraordinary.

You can understand why English King and Kameko top the market, the impressive Lingfield Derby Trial winner and the Guineas winner. We know that English King will stay, and he could hardly have been any more impressive than he was in winning the Lingfield race, the race that Anthony Van Dyck won last year as a prelude to his Derby win, and Frankie Dettori will ride him. However, he is short, he is going to have to improve on what he has done if he is going to win the Derby, and he has drawn the dreaded stall one.

It is probably more than mere coincidence that Oath is the last horse to win the Derby from stall one, and that no horse since Derby draws began in 1967 has won it from stall two.

The Derby start is on a hill, and there is that famous right-hand kink in the track before you start to wheel left and towards Tattenham Corner. You have to do a lot of running from an inside draw from the 12-furlong start at Epsom, up the hill and wide around the right-hand kink, if you are going to get an early position. Of course, you can be sure that Frankie Dettori will have a plan but, Frankie Dettori or not, English King’s draw is a negative.

You can be sure that Ryan Moore will have a plan too from stall two on Mogul but, as with English King, his draw is not a positive. It is significant that Mogul is still Ryan Moore’s ride, despite his draw, despite his defeat in the King Edward VII Stakes. It wouldn’t be surprising. He has been the Ballydoyle Derby number one since he beat Sinawann in the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes on Irish Champions’ Weekend at Leopardstown last September, but from a betting perspective, he is very short for what he has done on form.

Not certain

Kameko stayed on well at the end of a mile to win the Guineas, but he has another half-mile to go today and, on breeding he is not certain to get it. Similarly with Vatican City, he was strong at the finish in the Irish Guineas, but he is bred for a Guineas, a son of Cherry Hinton Stakes winner You’resothrilling, a full-brother to a dual Guineas and a St James’s Palace Stakes winner in Gleneagles, a full-brother to Irish Guineas winner Marvellous, a full-brother to Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Happily.

Russian Emperor is not certain to get a mile and a half either on breeding. His dam was prolific over distances from five and a half furlongs to 10 furlongs in Australia, but he is by Galileo and we know that he stays 10 furlongs well. He races like he will get a mile and a half all right, and that he could improve for the step up in trip.

He stayed on strongly to just get up on the line and win his maiden over a mile at Naas on the first day of the turf flat season in March, and he stepped forward from that next time when he finished second to Cormorant in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial over 10 furlongs, staying on strongly and just failing to catch his stable companion.

He stepped forward again last time in winning the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot. Again, he stayed on strongly from the rear to get up and beat First Receiver by a half a length, looking stronger at the line than he did at any stage of the race.

The Hampton Court is a Group 3 race, it is a significant step up to the Derby, but Aidan O’Brien’s colt’s overall time and finishing sectionals at Ascot were only marginally slower than those of Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner Lord North, a 124-rated four-year-old who carried the same weight.

It is of course a little bit of a concern that he appears to be just second in the Ballydoyle pecking order after Mogul, but the fact that Seamie Heffernan is going over to ride him mitigates that factor significantly. Heffernan is a top-class rider who is riding with supreme confidence these days, with an Irish Derby, an Irish 1000 Guineas and a Pretty Polly Stakes in the bag already this term. And remember, he won the Derby last year on Anthony Van Dyck.

Of the big-priced horses, Mohican Heights is the most interesting. David Simcock’s horse didn’t have the run of the race when he finished third in the King Edward VII Stakes, and he should be able to get closer to Pyledriver today than he did then. He has a stamina-laden pedigree, he may be more of a St Leger horse than a Derby horse, but he could out-run big odds. That said, at 6/1 or 13/2, Russian Emperor is the value of the race.

Investec Oaks

It might be worthwhile siding with Seamie Heffernan too in the Investec Oaks. His filly Ennistymon battled on well to win her maiden at Leopardstown in early June, and she did well to get as close to Frankly Darling in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot as she did.

Held up early on by James Doyle from her high draw, the pace was not overly fast, and she was wider than ideal around the home turn, but she stayed on well up the home straight. It never looked like she would catch Frankly Darling, but she moved from seventh at the two-furlong pole to second by the time she got to the furlong marker.

Her stable companion Love is the correct favourite, the Guineas winner, and Frankly Darling is obviously a big player again, but Ennistymon is four times the price of Frankly Darling, and that looks big.

Recommended

Ennistymon, 3.40 Epsom, 7/1 (Coral, Sportingbet) or 13/2 (generally) 1 point win

Russian Emperor, 4.55 Epsom, 13/2 (BoyleSports, William Hill) or 6/1 (generally) 1 point win