He took a bump at the start, however, he’s such a big-bodied sort the bump barely seemed to affect him.

He moved well in third last place initially and steadily came through the field to lead at the furlong pole. He was then pushed out to go clear, with his winning margin being amplified by the runner-up getting heavily eased.

True Story is such a big-bodied, muscular sort I can see why he’s been kept to straight courses for all his three starts so far. This contrasts with the last 17 Derby winners who had all run around a turn by their third start and before Epsom.

From a physical standpoint I’d say True Story is more likely to prove a 10 furlong rather than a mile and a half horse. His pedigree points the same way.

True Story’s sire, Manduro, did win the Group 2 Prix Niel over a mile and a half, but that was off a slow early pace. He’d won the Group 1 Jacques Le Marois on his previous start. His progeny have yet to win a pattern race beyond 11 furlongs in 25 tries to date. Over shorter distances Manduro’s offspring have won 11 times out of 68 in pattern company.

True Story’s only winning sibling Serengeti scored all his three wins over 10 furlongs or less. He did run fourth in the two-mile Queen’s Vase but he tired rather badly to get beaten nearly a dozen lengths in a race where he started favourite.

It’s possible True Story will stay a mile and a half but the chance he will both stay the distance AND handle the tight turns and steep gradients at Epsom don’t look great.

We will learn more about True Story if his connections stick to their plan of running him in the Dante or the Lingfield Derby Trial next time. If my read of him is right, he’d have more chance in the Dante, even though it normally attracts the stronger field of the two races. At Lingfield the longer distance and the tricky course could find him out.

Runner-up Obliterator (32) dropped out last early and was being ridden along quite vigorously after just two furlongs. Nonetheless he managed to move through the field with the winner and actually got to the front briefly a couple of strides before the furlong pole.

True Story soon did him for acceleration which prompted an unusual move from Obliterator’s jockey, Jamie Spencer. With 150 yards still left to run Spencer took a look back over his right shoulder, saw he was clear of the other runners and stopped riding. Obliterator’s stride rate dropped sharply and he was allowed to simply coast to the line.

My best estimate is that he would have finished three lengths closer to the winner if Spencer hadn’t stopped riding. But there’s a chance he could have rallied and got a good deal closer if Spencer had continued riding.

Most likely Obliterator needs a good deal longer than the nine furlongs of this race to produce his best form. Or it could be he would appreciate softer ground. Either way he does appear to have scope for improvement, especially when you take account of the way he was ridden, or rather not ridden, in the closing stages.

Fourth placed Barley Mow (28) ran a rather odd race. He was moving pretty well, close to the leaders for the first three quarters of a mile. Then he suddenly needed to be ridden along vigorously and steadily lost ground – dropping from fourth to sixth position as they ran down towards the dip and then up to the rising ground at the furlong marker.

He picked up nicely in the final furlong to move back into fourth but by then the winner and second had flown.

This was nowhere near the form Barley Mow showed last time at Lingfield or when a close fifth in the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere. The obvious explanation is that he failed to handle the dip and needs to go back to flat tracks.