Horse Racing Tips: Mark Milligan's best bets on Derby Day include a 13/2 shot

Epsom, 13:30 - Tattenham Corner Stakes: Back Never So Brave @ 5/42.25

We're straight into the think of the action on Derby Day, with the card's best bet coming in the 7f Tattenham Corner Stakes that opens proceedings.

Andrew Balding's Never So Brave established himself as a top-class performer at this trip last season, culminating in a Group 1 success in the City Of York Stakes at the Ebor meeting in August.

Although he gets a mile fine, this 7f distance looks his absolute optimum and a spin over the longer trip on his return at Sandown in April should have taken some of the freshness out of him with a view to returning to his optimum trip here.

With more 7f Group 1 contests likely to be on the agenda later this season, I'll be disappointed if Never So Brave can't take this lesser race with something to spare.

Epsom, 16:00 - The Derby: Back Pierre Bonnard @ 5/16.00

Aidan O'Brien's Derby record is unparalleled, and he holds as strong a hand as ever as he looks to win the race for the fourth successive time, while victory this year would take his overall record in the race to a remarkable 12.

Ryan Moore is on board favourite Benevenuto Cellini and this son of Frankel was most impressive when hosing up in the Chester Vase last time. That took his record to three wins from his last four starts and he'll clearly be hard to beat if able to replicate that form this time around.

With plenty of other potential improvers in the field, though, his current price of 2/13.00 hardly makes stacks of appeal and I'd prefer to look elsewhere.

O'Brien runs three others in the contest and it's the son of Camelot, Pierre Bonnard, who I'm siding with.

Camelot's progeny are best known for their staying traits and it could well be significant that the selection has yet to race over 1m 4f and there remains the likelihood that he could improve considerably for his first try at the trip.

Narrowly touched off by James J Braddock in the Derby Trial at Leopardstown on his most recent start, I fancy Pierre Bonnard to reverse that form, with this stiffer test likely to show him to much better effect.

Ryan Moore may have passed him over, but Christophe Soumillon is hardly a poor replacement and I'm hopeful the mercurial Belgian can bag his first Epsom Derby success on this one.

Click here to read Katie Midwinter's runner-by-runner guide to The Derby with 1-2-3 prediction

Epsom, 16:40 - Back Folk Pageant @ 13/27.50

While the following handicap may lack the prestige of the Derby, it's no less competitive and I'm confident that we've yet to see the best of Charlie Johnston's Folk Pageant despite the filly having won three of her last four starts.

The one blip in that quartet of races came when caught wide on the all-weather at Southwell, but that wasn't her running in any case and she's much better judged on her last two outings, both of which she won at Newmarket and Chester. That Chester win in particular showcased her ability to handle an unorthodox track and that should stand her in good stead here, as will the undulations she'd faced on her previous start at HQ.

A daughter of Derby winner Masar, she's bred to land a race on the big day and her pedigree strongly suggests she may even prove better than a handicapper in time, so it stands to reason there should still be more mileage in her current mark of just 80.

Epsom, 17:20 - Back Spinning Wheel @ 5/16.00

The ITV cameras may have stopped rolling by the time this 1m 4f handicap comes around, but this is still a fine race in its own right and one that should throw up plenty of winners as the summer progresses.

The one I fancy is Simon & Ed Crisford's Spinning Wheel, who is still unexposed after just six starts and there was a heap of promise in his comeback run over two furlongs further at Goodwood last month. Second to another relatively unexposed type owned by Godolphin that day (who had race fitness on his side), Spinning Wheel just ran out of steam late in the day and that run should bring him on a bundle.

The drop back to 1m 4f shouldn't inconvenience the selection in the slightest - in fact it may even prove his optimum in time - and I don't mind the fact that he has a big weight to carry as Epsom is one of those tight courses where giving weight away is easier than on stiffer tracks.

Now read Sam Turner's tips for Saturday at Epsom