SO Fine Gael are seeking a new leader who has the X Factor. Is that to be the deciding factor between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney?

After two weeks of trials, the Investec Derby is also seeking a horse with the X Factor. But hold on, we had one.

After Churchill justified favouritism in the 2000 Guineas, Coolmore spokesperson Kevin Buckley paid tribute to the new classic star: “He is a stunning-looking horse and he’s stallion material right now.”

With an eye on that second career at stud, those comments led you to believe that, on the basis of recent years and as was the case with Gleneagles before him, it was unlikely that a Derby bid over a mile and a half would be considered. This week’s comments see him more likely to follow the Gleneagles route and head for the Irish 2000 Guineas.

It’s a shame for racing, for, as we have seen more notably in the US, we can let a horse fall short once but then give him a chance to pick up without any negative impact to his subsequent career. Good breeding, good looks and a classic win have sealed that.

For all it’s racing ills, American stars can take a defeat and come back. American Pharaoh got beaten in the Travers and there was talk of retirement but he came back to seal his brilliant year with a win in the Breeders’ Cup. Similarily California Chrome came back from Europe and what seemed a wilderness to take a second Horse of the Year title.

It has been noted elsewhere that in Gleneagles, Coolmore have a top miler who will be given every chance to become a successor to Galileo. Churchill is bred on similar lines as a grandson of Storm Cat.

Churchill is a strong colt – he ran five times at two, he could easily have taken a beating at Epsom and bounced back over a mile in the Sussex, to set him up for a good end of season.

So, we are left looking for a middle distances star. There’s the old saying – if your horse is guaranteed to stay the Derby trip, he may be too slow to win the Derby.

We’ve seen before where superior class will overcome inferior stamina.

There’s good reason to believe that Minding might not be best over a mile and a half, but was so superior to her rivals in last year’s Oaks, it made no difference. Oh So Sharp and Rule Of Law were Leger winners with suspect stamina who prevailed through excellent jockeyship over inferior rivals.

In all the trials, exposed horses finished close to what are now the principal Derby contenders. In the Derrinstown Trial (Inshaysable), the Chester Vase (The Anvil), there was little between three or four runners. Lingfield winner Best Solution was impressive but beat little when Sir John Lavery disappointed. Rekindling did little for the Irish trial form in the Dante which left Cracksman as the leading British contender for a race that is looking like a three-way battle – Ballydoyle v Godolphin v the Frankels.

The 2000 Guineas was promoted as one of the best in years. New Approach, Sea The Stars, Camelot and Australia all ran in the Guineas, before Epsom success, and with no main contender emerging from the trials at Leopardstown, Chester and York, Churchill is the best three-year-old seen so far. Timeform rate him 126p, with Eminent on 116p and Best Solution on 115

The potential Ballydoyle middle distance horses, led now by Cliffs Of Moher, must step up and, on past years, probably will, but can they all be classic standard?

It’s also noticable from their pedigrees that many contenders have speedy dam sires – more mile and a quarter than 12 furlongs. Sending speedy mares to Galileo is the definite trend.

We had no obvious Derby winner last year and looking back, the 7/2 favourite that we took for US Army Ranger looks more than a shade short 12 months on.

You don’t expect to see your Derby winner have too many defeats on his CV and some of the likely candidates don’t have the usual progressive profile of a Derby winner.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” It’s a pity Churchill doesn’t lead us to the Downs.