The Derby, Oaks and Eclipse preview – A look ahead to a bumper weekend of racing with Oli Bell

Horse Racing has been enjoying a spell in the spotlight following its rapid return from the coronavirus shutdown, and that is set to continue with one of the best weekend line-ups in recent memory.

Saturday sees the Oaks and the world’s most famous race, the Derby, both run on the same card at Epsom while Sunday gives us the return of perhaps the sport’s biggest star, Enable, in the Eclipse at Sandown, a contest which ITV Racing’s Oli Bell says could be “one of the races of the century”.

The national easing in lockdown measures also means that from Saturday, the BHA will allow owners to attend behind-closed-doors meetings for the first time since March, a timely development.

“During lockdown the owners have been unbelievable,” Bell says. “They’ve been so patient, kept paying the bills and they’ve been a credit to our sport, every owner who’s stuck by their horses and trainers.

“The Derby is the pinnacle of the sport for Flat racing. For someone like Bjorn Nielsen, who owns [race favourite] English King, he’s dreamt about winning the Derby his whole life and it’d be a shame if he wasn’t there to see that.”

Bell will also be back on track, having presented ITV’s Opening Show and Social Stable from home during Royal Ascot and the Guineas meeting at Newmarket, with the broadcaster showing coverage from 1:30pm on both days.

Here, Oli Bell helps Standard Sport preview the three Group One races…

English King heads the betting for Ed Walker, with Frankie Dettori on board having been offered the ride ahead of the unfortunate Tom Marquand, who partnered the horse to such an impressive win in a Lingfield trial last month. He has been handed the nightmarish draw of stall one, however, which has not produced a winner of the race this century.

Kameko, for Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy, was a mighty winner of the 2000 Guineas last month but the form of that race has not worked out particularly well and he remains unproven at the trip.

“I think the aces are held this year by the English horses,” Bell says. “The way English King won at Lingfield suggested to me that he’s a very, very good horse. He’s got bags of talent and I think he deserves to be favourite.

“Kameko’s clocking 44mph in training, which is serious speed. Everything I’ve seen and heard tells me he’s a very quick horse and whether he can maintain that for a mile-and-a-half at Epsom is another matter. He’s taking on a lot of horses bred to be Derby winners and I’m not 100 per cent convinced he’ll stay.”

Last year’s winning trainer Aidan O’Brien is mob-handed with six declared runners, Mogul seemingly the first string as the pick of no. 1 jockey Ryan Moore, despite a poor run in the King Edward VII at Ascot last time, where he finished well-beaten by the winner, Pyledriver, and also behind Mohican Heights, who both re-oppose at more twice the price in the betting.

“The prices are wrong in my opinion,” Bell adds. “Mogul’s the shortest of the three but to me he’s got the most to do.

“If you can see Mogul running well because he’s going to improve for the run then surely the same applies to Mohican Heights. David Simcock’s horses are just starting to hit form and at a big price he’s a horse that I’d have on my ticket.

“Pyledriver was very impressive and if he was trained by Aidan O’Brien he’d be much shorter than he is, no disrespect to William Muir. The story is incredible, the owners have turned down offers for him, nobody really wanted him to start with and now he’s a leading fancy in the Derby.”

Love, for Aidan O’Brien, has been the antepost favourite for the fillies’ race ever since her authoritative win in the 1000 Guineas a month ago, and while Peaceful, winner of the Irish equivalent for the same connections, has been re-routed elsewhere, the yard also have Ennistymon among the leading fancies in a small field of eight runners.

The main danger looks to be John Gosden’s Frankly Darling, a daughter of Frankel who was a terrific winner of the Ribblesdale but boasts little of Love’s experience, having raced only once in her two-year-old campaign.

“I think the Oaks is a clearer picture [than the Derby],” Bell says. “I think it’s a two-horse race between Frankly Darling and Love and they’re quite different types. Love is seemingly a bit more professional, will stay relentlessly and Frankly Darling's a bit flashy, headstrong, very talented but brings quirks to it.

“Frankly Darling’s learning on the job every time and that's going to be huge for her because she was still doing a lot wrong at Ascot but winning. I think she's tremendously talented, it's just whether she's professional enough to be Love at this stage of her career.”

It’d take quite something to eclipse (sorry) Saturday’s racing, but on Sunday at Sandown we have an epic in store as dual Arc winner Enable sets foot on the racecourse for the first time this season, having been kept in training as a six-year-old.

John Gosden’s filly was last seen when agonisingly missing out on a hat-trick at Paris-Longchamp in October, and will have to be at her best on her reappearance as she encounters the likes of Ghaiyyath and Japan.

The former has a slightly unfair reputation as something of an enigma but smashed the course record at Newmarket in the rescheduled Coronation Stakes last time out, while the latter is expected to improve after a sub-par reappearance in the Prince Of Wales at Ascot.

“It's going to be a fascinating race with arguably the best horses on the planet, and it's the day after the best race on the planet,” Bell says.

“Enable's captured the public's imagination, her association with Frankie [Dettori], what she's done in the Arcs in the past, just getting touched off last year was heart-breaking.

“I really like Ghaiyyath as a horse, his sectionals at Newmarket were brilliant. Japan I think is more of a late season horse, his form last year suggested that, so it'll be interesting to see again what step he takes forward.”

QIPCO British Champion Series are looking for Enable’s biggest fan. To enter the competition and for more information please visit: bcseri.es/EnableFan