AFTER all the conjecture, we are down to just one Aidan O’Brien-trained representative in the Cazoo Derby. That hasn’t happened since 2004.

As votes of confidence in classic horses go, they don’t get much stronger. All the others could have run, it’s just that they are being re-routed, scattered to different targets, to Royal Ascot, to the Irish Derby, to the Prix du Jockey Club tomorrow. One of the products of the depth and width of the Ballydoyle Epsom Derby team in recent years is that Aidan O’Brien has never trained the winner of the Prix du Jockey Club.