HANS UP FOR DERBY

HOLBEIN galloped into the Investec Derby picture with a front-running one-and-threequarter-length victory in the MBNA Chester Vase yesterday.

The son of late sire Montjeu is 20-1 with Hills for the June 6 race at Epsom but the more significant odds may ultimately prove to be the 14- 1 being quoted by Ladbrokes for the St Leger at Doncaster in September.

Staying should not be a problem for a close relative of 2010 Irish Leger winner Sans Frontiere.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien (right) has farmed the Vase in recent seasons and the 7-4 favourite’s win was a sixth f or the Irishman in the past nine runnings.

Like O’Brien’s 2013 winner Ruler Of The World, Hans Holbein sports distinctive brown cheekpieces but any similarity to that Derby winner seems likely to end there.

No front-runner has won the Derby since Reference Point in 1987 and while it would be unfair to pick too many holes in an honest, strong-galloping effort from Ryan Moore’s mount, it was a performance which shouted more Derby place chance than obvious winner.

But, after a series of Derby trial reverses for the Ball y doyle trainer and the colt’s Coolmore Stud owners, O’ Brien’s team were happy to accentuate the positive with a colt bought for only £52,500 — loose change f or an organisation which splashed £3.6million for Sir Isaac Newton, beaten favourite in Wednesday’s Derby trial.

Kevin Buckley, Coolmore’s UK representative, said: ‘Ryan was pleased. His plan was to ride positively. He was very happy how he went to the line. In fact, he had a job pulling him up.

‘It was textbook stuff. That definitely puts him in the Derby picture. The cheekpieces are the same-coloured ones as Ruler Of The World wore when he won here, and we know what he did.’

O’Brien runs Smuggler’s Cove in today’s Dee Stakes but he does not hold a Derby entry. With Nafaqa, the Barry Hills-trained Craven Stakes runner-up, a non-runner, Ed Dunlop’s Prince Gagarin is potentially the most interesting runner today lined up for Epsom.