Timefigure Tips: Epsom Derby Festival

French ace should have no issues

There’s no doubt the feature race at Epsom on Saturday is the Betfred Derby which is still described in some quarters as the greatest horse race in the world, at least on the Flat, but to what degree the Betfred Oaks is a bigger draw on Friday than the Coronation Cup is I suppose a matter of debate.

What is not open to argument, however, at least as I see things, is that while the Oaks has attracted the 1000 Guineas winner, the Coronation Cup has gone two better and enticed not only two classic winners but what I consider to be the best middle-distance horse in Europe, and by some distance too, in Calandagan, who is having his second run of the year having made his 2025 debut in the Sheema Classic at Meydan back in April.

That race didn’t go Calandagan’s way, held up too far off a steady pace and unable to get any closer than a length and a quarter at the line in a race that bore an uncanny similarity to the 2024 Juddmonte International when he also gave the Derby winner City of Troy too much of a head start in a steadily-run affair but sectional upgrades showed he was the moral winner.