Betting forecast: 6/4 Golden Horn, 9/2 Jack Hobbs, 6/1 Giovanni Canaletto, 7/1 Elm Park, 14/1 Hans Holbein, 16/1 Epicuris, 16/1 Success Days, 20/1 Kilimanjaro, 20/1 Storm The Stars, 40/1 Moheet, 100/1 Rogue Runner, 250/1 Carbon Dating.

Golden Horn: Is the 7-4 Derby favourite

 PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Horn looks good if stamina holds out

The Assessor Graham Dench with his expert view on the Epsom Classic

THERES’S no getting away from the Dante as the spring’s standout trial for the Investec Derby, yet some key questions are still unanswered and there are no guarantees the form will be reproduced on Saturday. That, of course, is one of the beauties of the unique test presented by the Classic.

The Derby was crying out for something to emerge from the pack. The 2,000 Guineas had gone to one with no pretensions to being a mile-and-a-half colt, Chester and Lingfield had seemingly failed to unearth a likely middle-distance star and, while the Derrinstown had been won in tremendous style, the winner Success Days, who was supplemented, was widely assumed to need soft ground.

Golden Horn stamped his authority on the Dante in no uncertain terms, and in the process he overturned the morning favourite for the Derby, his stablemate Jack Hobbs – to no great surprise from those closest to the two colts, or at least not at that trip and at that stage of their development.

The trouble was, Golden Horn was at that stage not entered at Epsom, it reportedly having never occurred to his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer that he might be a mile-and-a-half horse, since the very best members of the family had been milers.

Supplementary entry was little more than a formality after such a stylish success, but the question is as valid now as it was then; will he stay?

Nobody truly knows the answer, however persuasively they might argue one way or the other. What we can say, though, is there are elements in his pedigree that suggest it’s far from impossible, and if he settles and travels like he did at York he will give himself every chance of doing so. And if he does stay he will take the world of beating.

Jack Hobbs went to York with broadly similar racecourse experience to Golden Horn but looked nowhere near the finished article. He was brushed aside fairly readily, but he was going on again in the last half-furlong or so and, whereas Golden Horn’s stamina is suspect, he should relish the extra distance.

Elm Park: can be backed at 8-1

 PICTURE: Martin Lynch (racingpost.com/photos)

Third-placed Elm Park has six lengths to make up on Golden Horn, but even that is not impossible. He patently needed that run and if he returns to the level of his impressive win in the Racing Post Trophy he’s bang there.

It would be easy to dismiss the Aidan O’Brien colts Hans Holbeinand Kilimanjaro as simply not good enough to win a typical Derby, and on their bare form they’re not. O’Brien and ‘the lads’ recognise this, and so have been searching high and low for a classier contender. Having ruled out Gleneagles and Found, their third runner is Giovanni Canaletto, who was far from convincing in Group 3 defeat last month.

Hans Holbein and Kilimanjaro won their trials under contrasting rides, but both have at least one asset that favourite Golden Horn and most of the other principals lack, as they’re already proven at the trip and guaranteed to see it out strongly.

Hans Holbein’s all-the-way win in the Chester Vase was franked at Goodwood by Storm The Stars and Medrano and looks the stronger form, but there was also much to like in Kilimanjaro’s finishing effort from an unpromising position at Lingfield.

CONCLUSION

Golden Horn looked all class in the Dante and is going to be hard to beat if his stamina holds out. In a Derby that lacks a bit of strength in depth he might even win without being a true mile-and-a-half colt, although he’ll be vulnerable in the final furlong to stouter stayers such as Jack Hobbs and possibly Elm Park.

Ballydoyle duo Hans Holbein and Kilimanjaro have nothing like the profile of past Coolmore Epsom stars but have strong place claims in a field in which guaranteed stayers with the class to be competitive are thin on the ground.

Following a dry afternoon on Friday and a dry night, the going is now good, good to firm in places (from good), with a dry, warm day forecast.