COMMON consensus is that the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial is the best Irish trial for the Epsom Derby (the clue is in the title), but it isn’t.

There have been nine Irish-trained Epsom Derby winners since the turn of the millennium (also nine since Secreto beat El Gran Senor in 1984), and still just three of them, the first three, Sinndar, Galileo and High Chaparral, ran in the Derrinstown trial.

Four of them (New Approach, Sea The Stars, Camelot and Australia) ran in the 2000 Guineas, and four of them ran in the Ballysax Stakes. Harzand was the one who ran in the Ballysax but skipped the Derrinstown and went straight to Epsom. One of them (Ruler Of The World) won the Chester Vase.

History says that you don’t have to win the trial in order to win the Derby. New Approach and Australia got beaten in the Guineas, Sinndar got beaten in the Ballysax. (For a bonus point, can you name the horse that beat him?) Better if you do though.

None of the nine Irish-trained Derby millennials ran in the Dante, which presents a quandary for fans of Rekindling, who won the Ballysax and is now on track for York on Thursday. Cape Blanco came close in a sense in 2010, he won the Dante and eschewed the Epsom Derby for (an ultimately unsuccessful) foray to Chantilly for the French Derby before returning to the Curragh and winning the Irish Derby, while the horse that he beat at York, Workforce, won the Epsom Derby.

If, indeed, you are a Rekindling fan however, you want to see Joseph O’Brien’s horse going and winning the Dante on Thursday of course. Benny The Dip and Motivator and Authorized and Golden Horn have all won the Derby in recent years after winning the Dante.

The horse who beat Sinndar in the Ballysax?

The Moyglare/Dermot Weld colt Grand Finale, by a head.

(I had to look it up too).