'Donnacha said to me early 'Emmet wins this' - we always knew he had the class'

It was the year in which some feared we would have no Derby. What we got instead was a Derby like no other.

As racing went deeper into its spring shutdown it was for some time unclear whether or not there would be any sort of meaningful Flat season, let alone an Investec Derby. As confidence grew that there would at some point be a Derby, there remained fears about whether or not it could be staged behind closed doors at Epsom.

Thanks to a tremendous collective effort, the world's most famous Flat race did indeed take place at its usual home, where a largely unheralded outsider and his jockey produced one of the premier Classic's most remarkable winning performances.