Why Ryan Moore might have made the Derby waters murkier with a questionable Dante decision

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In weeks like Chester, when none of his mounts seemed to put a hoof mark where he had not clearly calculated, it can be tempting to think Ryan Moore never gets it wrong. However, it is arguable that he erred in the Dante Stakes, and as a consequence muddied Britain's leading Derby trial.

Granted, repeated viewings of the race suggest that the Andrew Balding-trained Item would have emerged as the best horse regardless of how things went. But by jinking right early in the straight on Christmas Day, and taking most of the field with him, Moore compromised quite a few chances, while Colin Keane on Item wasted no such ground and reaped the rewards.

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The two who went down the middle to far side of the track, Item and pacemaker Action, were first and second. They were either the two best horses in the Dante, had the run of the race in terms of track position or pace, or a mixture of both. Action probably got a lot of the positional benefit, a little bit more than Item, whose superiority was more than the winning margin of two and three-quarter lengths implies.