WITH the Derby now only two weeks away and the Dante completing the major trials, has the picture got any clearer?

The fact that two of the better trials were won by horses who had already been taken out of the Derby suggests not, but the emergence of Telecaster and Sir Dragonet as major contenders merely goes to show that forming concrete opinions of the classic well ahead of time is a dangerous business. In terms of what they have achieved, the pair mentioned above deserve to be supplemented and probably will be, as the Derby without either of them would be a weaker contest. It should be considered that both have had to rush to some degree to prove their credentials, and there has been no sense of them being trained to peak in a fortnight’s time, but primarily to prove whether they were worthy candidates.