Those Ballydoyle boys are back for more as they seek to pick up yet another Vase

We have arrived at the opening day of the Chester May meeting, but it is not as we have known it. The running order of the races looks rather different. The order in which the horses finish running could be much more as we have come to expect.

On Saturday the 2,000 Guineas was guzzled up by Aidan O'Brien for the ninth time.

The incredible master of Ballydoyle keeps winning the Newmarket Classic and he keeps winning on the Roodee, where on Wednesday he attempts to strengthen an Investec Derby team headed by red-hot favourite Saxon Warrior.

Normally the curtain-raising afternoon at the Roman circuit is headlined by the track's signature race, the 188bet Chester Cup.

This time the two-and-a-bit-lap marathon has been pushed back to become the Friday feature, meaning the day-one star attraction is now the MBNA Chester Vase, a race O'Brien and Ryan Moore know extremely well.

A centennial success for Moore and O'Brien?

This will be the 100th running of the famous Derby trial. O'Brien and Moore have not quite won all of them, but it may feel a bit like that.

While O'Brien is now seeking his ninth Vase to dust, he and his principal rider have annexed the last five runnings. The first of those in 2013 was claimed by subsequent Epsom champion Ruler Of The World. We also saw the horse who would be last year's Derby winner running in the Vase 12 months ago, although it would have been hard to believe so at the time.

On the festival Thursday last season Moore-steered Venice Beach to victory in a race in which stablemates filled the next two places. In second was the Seamie Heffernan-ridden Wings Of Eagles. Venice Beach went to take 12th on June's first Saturday. We know what the other horse did.

Venice Beach and Ryan Moore had future Derby winner Wings Of Eagles (8) behind him in last year's Chester VaseCredit: Edward Whitaker

Fast forward to 2018 and O'Brien again has three contenders for the Vase.

Moore, the Ben-Hur of this particular chariot circuit, will be aboard Sandown Classic Trial third Hunting Horn. To make matters more complicated, Godolphin field the Sandown second, Ispolini, another runner for the scorching-hot Charlie Appleby-William Buick alliance.

On the basis there is strength in numbers, and because there are many more Derby aspirants at Ballydoyle than there are Derby trials to run them in, O'Brien also sends the Heffernan-ridden Flag Of Honour and Family Tree, the mount of Saxon Warrior's Newmarket jockey Donnacha O'Brien.

O'Brien jnr needs to be back at Gowran for the 6.35pm race, so with the Vase due off only three hours earlier he is unlikely to permit an early dawdle.

All three Ballydoyle colts can be backed at 33-1 for the Derby. Given Saxon Warrior is a best-priced 11-10, the top of the pecking order will surely not be changing.

Maidens chase glory in Enable race

If we had little idea at the time that the 2017 Derby winner had run in the Vase, it was much more obvious that the Cheshire Oaks had played host to a genuine Classic contender.

It is almost certain there is nothing remotely close to the level of Enable in this year's Arkle Finance-backed race, that point being underlined by the fact the early favourite has been a twice-raced maiden, the O'Brien-trained and Moore-ridden Magic Wand.

Cheshire Oaks, 2017, and Enable (Frankie Dettori) bursts into the Epsom reckoning with a smooth defeat of AlluringlyCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Once again, the sport's most powerful stable mounts a triple challenge, with another maiden, Forever Together, successful in just one of her three outings, also part of the trio.

Yet another maiden, Hazarfiya, is an intriguing runner for Sir Michael Stoute. She could give a boost to the form of Investec Oaks favourite Lah Ti Dar, having finished a distant seventh to her at Newbury.

That said, Lah Ti Dar's trainer John Gosden could plunder this race as well, his candidate being Award Winning, a Wetherby winner (it wasn't a hunter chase) last month who represents the Coolmore owners. They tend to do quite well here.

Eminent names waiting to run

The Chester Cup is not a race targeted by the Coolmore crew and on Friday it will ensure the meeting ends with more of a bang than in recent years.

Across the final two days of an ancient festival we will get more Derby clues in Thursday's Dee Stakes and a returning star in the shape of Huxley Stakes hopeful Eminent. We also have last year's Hardwicke Stakes winner Idaho (another representing him, him and them) in the Ormonde Stakes.

Expect huge crowds at Chester’s popular May meetingCredit: Edward Whitaker

As the festival has been going since 1766 it will probably carry on a fair while longer, but this will be its final time on Racing UK, with Chester having recently announced it will switch to the new Sky Sports Racing channel next year.

The people to follow in the Chester Vase will probably stay the same.

I know a 66-1 shot won the 1,000 Guineas, but surely not . . .

This might seem odd but some bookmakers quote Miles Christianus at a bigger price to win the Chester Vase than he is to win the Derby. It is nigh-on certain he will win neither.

The once-raced animal is 100-1 for the Derby with Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook but on Monday afternoon was 250-1 for this Derby trial.

Given he was seventh of eighth in the Blue Riband Trial he is not tempting at any of the prices. He may also be doomed on the Derby front as for the first time this year a horse must have a BHA rating of 80, or be deemed worthy of one, to be allowed into the Epsom starting stalls.

Trendsetter

The 1m2f maiden at 4.05pm has been quite dependable in recent years. For a start, outsiders do not win it.

Seven of the last ten favourites have been successful, while in the last decade nine of the winners have been sent off 5-1 or much shorter. In three of the last seven runnings John Gosden has been triumphant.

The probable favourite this season is Argentello. Gosden trains him. The omens are promising.

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