Oaks and Derby Antepost Tips: Back The Lion to roar in Epsom Classic on Saturday

• Elwateen price looks appealing for Friday Classic 

• Who will Moore ride for Saturday's big race?

• Alan Dudman has 6/17.00 and 7/18.00 tips for Epsom's two big races 

Derby week and watering ahoy

Derby week is the week that opens the eyes of the racing connoisseur the widest and we all have our own personal memories of the great race. My own would be Lammtarra at a time I was beginning to fully appreciate the arts of the game and as I write I have the portrait hanging above me.

It's also the race that my father took my mother to on several occasions in the 1970s and no doubt I'll be hearing the story of pater going through the card decades ago - a claim still to be substantiated.

Back then, watering wouldn't have been so obvious and on Tuesday morning we were greeted with the news that Epsom have watered, which is a curious decision to say the least considering it was raining here down in the south this morning.

Desert Flower to face O'Brien army

Nine entries for The Oaks are dominated by Desert Flower - and the brilliant Godolphin filly sets a high standard hence the 6/42.50 price and with a couple of supposed rags in the betting and the possibility of nine becoming less in terms of decs, she potentially could shorten to around Evens.

1 (1)

Desert Flower (Ire)

• J: William Buick
• T: Charlie Appleby
• F:

There's no denying Desert Flower's accomplishments, but 1m4f at Epsom will ask a lot and her trainer Charlie Appleby as yet, has failed to win the race in his nascent 12 years of training.

She's in the top six Timeform horses for the three-year-old age bracket with a master rating of 118 and she flies in the face of Appleby's recent runners as she isn't a daughter of the great progenitor Dubawi.

Whirl, Giselle and Minnie Hauk have all got a fair bit of experience between them for Appleby's great rival Aidan O'Brien. 

Giselle won the Lingfield Oaks Trial by nine lengths, but the race had so pitifully few runners. Whirl landed the Musidora and Minnie Hauk scooped the Cheshire Oaks. All trials mopped up by AOB.

Whirl wouldn't be a million miles away from Desert Flower in terms of a Timeform rating of 114 with a small 'p' and she looks made for the trip as a daughter of Wootton Bassett. While the form of the York win didn't look particularly strong, the time was a good one and Snowfall used the Musidora before her Oaks victory in 2021.

Whirl looks a likely stayer, on run style Minnie Hauk who was niggled along in her trial looks a 1m4f filly too.

Elwateen looks the each-way play

2 (5)

Elwateen (Ire)

• J: Jim Crowley
• T: Saeed bin Suroor
• F:

I quite fancied Elwateen in the 1,000 Guineas at a big price for trainer Saeed bin Suroor and she ran with great credit in the first Classic considering it was just her second career start and first of the season.

You have to be open-minded about the trip and her pedigree as a daughter of Dubawi offers great hope as does the fact she's been supplemented for the race. Bin Suroor, a dual Oaks winning trainer, said of her stamina chances: "The further she goes, it will be better for her."

Watching the Newmarket race again this morning, she kept tabs on Desert Flower for a long way and was still travelling nicely until the final couple of furlongs, where her inexperience looked evident against a filly with a bit more pace and know-how and she might have paid the price for racing too close to the eventual winner. 

At 7/18.00 and three places she looks a fairly obvious each-way bet. While she lacks experience, 1m4f could unlock some more improvement.

Delacroix holds Derby favouritism - but who will Moore ride?

A totally different betting market for The Derby on Saturday with 20 at the entries stage and a top three market at 9/43.25, 7/24.50 and 4/15.00.

Delacroix has the perfect trial build-up with Ballysax and Leopardstown Derby Trial wins and has posted a Timeform rating of 116 thus far with a small p. I don't see the step up in trip as a negative at all and represents a poser for Ryan Moore as to who to ride.

The Lion In Winter was well beaten in the Dante, as we know the strongest trial, and the pre-match vibes about him were spot on as he looked in desperate need of the run. He was sweating beforehand and was far too keen throughout the race, which has to be a worry going into the hooplah of Epsom, but his juvenile form gave him a Timeform figure of 118, and we will certainly see a different horse I am sure.

17 (19)

The Lion In Winter (Ire)

• J: C. T. Keane
• T: Aidan O'Brien, Ireland
• F:

The market this week has been full of turbulence with his price drifting alarmingly, and while seemingly settled on Tuesday at 6/17.00 he really is the poser here. On his Dante run you wouldn't go near him, but look at what happened with City Of Troy 12 months ago when stuffed in the Guineas and dubbed the "Wooden Horse" before a brilliant comeback at Epsom.

On pedigree, he's a son of Sea The Stars and his dam is a Galileo daughter so it's all there on paper. His Curragh debut win too gave hope he looked very much a mile-and-a-half horse as he was niggled for nearly the whole race over over 7f but woke up in the end to win pretty easily and clocked the fastest final furlong which was nearly a full second quicker than the runner-up.

The stock of Sea The Stars are usually fluent movers and hold good minds, so his York keenness and sweating flies in the face of the father, but he's too talented a horse to dismiss and his body of work from last year overrides the Dante effort for now.

And what's in a name? Well, The Lion In Winter was a 1968 film starring Sir Peter O'Toole about the battle who will be the heir to the throne, something they are all trying to do in equine circles as the heir to Galileo.

Now read more tips and previews ahead of Epsom here!