Derby trial winner doesn’t have past to suggest big one in future

Only three of the runners in the field had an early entry for the Derby in June, and so it was fitting that the first two past the line both held those lofty reservations.

James Tate’s Mirsaale, now 50/1 for the Derby, under a typically effective Neil Callan, raced prominently throughout and once he had seen off eventual third Gabrial’s Kaka the race was secure with the second favourite never in danger of being caught by Another Cocktail.

Although impressive for a seasonal debut, it couldn’t be considered worthy of making a sizeable imprint on ante-post lists for June, despite giving the impression there was more to come if required.

As a result, the extra two furlongs in the Derby will presumably bring out more improvement, but no-one with wagers on the main protagonists will be rushing to trade.

A lot of the talk before the race centred around Mark Johnston’ s impressive Doncaster winner Mister Impatience with son Charlie saying that a convincing victory would seal his place for the big one at Epsom two months away.

However, those loose dreams completely unravelled, as Joe Fanning was soon ill at ease on the favourite, making no impression on the leaders at any point in the contest.

With the favourite disappointing badly, it is a difficult race to judge, with expectations of the winner’s future in the hands of interpretation.

On the one hand, Mirsaale could be deemed to merely have taken advantage of a race that failed to live up to the bill with most of the field never figuring.

Conversely, it could be argued that the son of Sir Percy has built significantly on an indifferent juvenile campaign where he was learning to swim in the deep end.

Unfortunately, the career of his 2006 Derby-winning sire does not bolster the latter view, having gone through his four-race first campaign unbeaten.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing