DID someone mention Triple Crown? Ah, that was last week, this week it’s just down to Derby talk.

The interest of course is nothing like a Cheltenham build-up (forget a preview night – this year’s Derby is lucky it didn’t get an early morning slot).

But the build-up to the Epsom classic is an intriguing time trying to sift though lightly-raced, regally-bred young horses for a future star.

Fingers have been burnt though. (Don’t mention English King!). Have we a contender or a pretender?

Despite his total eclipse in the 2000 Guineas, Ballydoyle’s Auguste Rodin is still one of the Derby favourites.

Questions were asked to recall when the last Derby was won off such an uninspiring run and a quick search came to Dr Devious who ran in the Kentucky Derby in 1992 and was probably the last.

Where once we looked for Galileo to provide the top three-year-old colts, now we look to Frankel. Chaldean gave him a Guineas winner and now he has a Derby contender.

The winter favourite was joined at top of the markets this week by the Chester Vase winner Arrest.

It’s a bit of an unfortunate name. When I see Arrest in a racing headline I jolt for a moment, rather like seeing Unfortunately leading a breeding headline, I fear the worst! But the final Frankie factor adds more interest to the classic.

The going was tough at Chester but you could not fault the Abdullah colt’s performance.

Dubawi’s son San Antonio is also in the mix after staying on strongly, albeit over a shorter distance in the Dee Stakes, and his Galileo dam could induce sufficient stamina, with her running second in an Irish Oaks.

As Auguste Rodin was flopping at Newmarket, a new, less touted contender emerged from Leopardstown’s Derby Trial, very often a highlighter of classic contenders. Jessica Harrington’s Sprewell impressed both in physical and performance.

However, Churchill is a doubt in his pedigree. His dam was raced mostly at a mile but was a good winner over the 10 furlongs in the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes at Woodbine. Her best offspring won over a mile for Roger Varian, despite being by Oasis Dream.

We still have York and the Irish classics to throw a few more into the mix but there seems to be plenty of colts in the mix for this year’s famed race.