The Derby needs another magical winner - or at least a Golden Horn

A few days to the Derby and you'd like to think Britain is holding its breath, anticipating the 242nd running of the greatest of all Flat races that has spawned imitations around the globe. A race that once drew the country to a standstill, parliament to close its doors and head to Epsom for a day when "a population rolls and surges and scrambles through the place that may be counted in millions", by Dickens' arithmetic. "Of these, the vicious and unprincipled form a tolerable proportion," according to one 1820s local resident who might be surprised at how little has changed.

More realistically, too many will spend this week decrying the race as a faded glory, full of slow boats or non-stayers and will point to the list of latest winners with a sigh and a shrug.

True, it's unlikely the recent additions to the roll of honour will play much part in shaping the breed, and anyone who trots out Federico Tesio's overused line that "the thoroughbred exists because its selection has depended, not on experts, technicians or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby" is living in another century.