We saw six middle-distance stars over the weekend - but how many times will they clash this season?

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Perhaps this day should be known as Musing Monday, when connections of various classy middle-distance horses consider their options for the rest of the Flat season. The first weekend in June always brings a remarkable glut of quality middle-distance action (the Coronation Cup, the Oaks, the Derby, the French Derby - perhaps even the Grand Prix de Chantilly at a pinch) and we always end up with a new set of stars who will hopefully light up the following five months. 

City Of Troy is the biggest name, of course. His next race will be keenly anticipated. What can he do against older horses? Now that he's returned to his peak, can he hold his form or is he still vulnerable to whatever mucked up his chance in the Guineas? Would they really try him on dirt?

The way Ambiente Friendly cruised into contention will live long in the memory. He also has star talent.

Ezeliya won the Oaks with real authority and comes from one of those classy Aga Khan families, with Gold Cup winners in there somewhere. The Arc has been mentioned. 

Luxembourg wouldn't count as a new star but you've got to love a horse who can win a Group 1 for four years in a row. It was a great pleasure to see Hamish run so well in being beaten just a length and hopefully he can be found other opportunities in the best races. British weather always gives him a fair chance of getting his ground, summer or not. It's a pity he wouldn't be allowed in the Arc.

Luxembourg: winner of the Coronation Cup at EpsomCredit: Edward Whitaker

I'm not totally convinced about the quality of that French Derby on Sunday. But it's hard to knock an unbeaten winner and Look De Vega's physique suggests he has plenty of improvement left in him.  

So there's six big names to emerge from this weekend. How many times, do you think, those star middle-distance types will clash before the end of the year? 

It's the third time I've asked the question and, judging by the past couple of years, the answer is going to be three or four. It's a disappointingly small number, given how many months of the season lie ahead of us, but then again we don't get a top-class race at 1m2f or 1m4f every weekend. These are the types of horses who get looked after. 

After Derby weekend last year, these were the horses whose futures we were pondering: Auguste Rodin, King Of Steel, Soul Sister, Savethelastdance, Emily Upjohn, Westover and Ace Impact. Those Epsom races (plus one from Chantilly) worked out very nicely; five of those seven won top-class races later in the year, while Soul Sister suffered a setback after her next start. 

But there were just four races between early June and December which featured more than one of those seven horses. The big one was the King George, in which four of them turned up: Westover (second), King Of Steel (third), Emily Upjohn (seventh) and the mercurial Auguste Rodin (tenth). 

After that, it was just the Irish Champion (1st Auguste Rodin, 4th King Of Steel), the Arc (1st Ace Impact, 2nd Westover) and the Breeders' Cup Turf (1st Auguste Rodin, 5th King Of Steel). 

When I made the same study in 2022, picking six stars from that first weekend in June, it turned out that they clashed in just three races during the remainder of the year. The King George and the Arc were among them and there was also the Irish Derby. 

We've said it a million times before but here's a fresh example showing that horseracing is really not at all good at getting its stars to take each other on. And it'll doubtless be a similar tale this year, judging by what connections of Ambiente Friendly have said in the wake of Saturday's race: "We'll go wherever City Of Troy doesn't." 

Ambiente Friendly: chased home City Of Troy at EpsomCredit: Edward Whitaker

Sigh! There are backers of Ambiente Friendly out there arguing that he might have got closer if the button had been pressed a little earlier and yet it seems any kind of rematch is not on the table. Mind you, backers of every Derby runner-up probably spend the following days picking over what might have been. 

Heck, I've been having those same thoughts about my own bet in the race, Macduff, even though he fell out the back of the telly with three furlongs to run. Judging by the way the Juddmonte silks were pinging backwards and forwards in the stalls, during the age that it took to get Los Angeles loaded, I should say Macduff had got himself a bit worked up.

He was very slightly slow to stride and then the first thing that happened was Euphoric shoulder-barging him to one side. If Euphoric was a footballer doing it on purpose, you could have called it a reducer tackle. Horses being horses, it was just a thing that happened.

Was it enough to make Macduff curl up inside himself? Might we see a completely different version of him in the Eclipse?

Stranger things have happened. Wait till I tell you about this horse that ran terrible in the Guineas and then won the Derby next time...

Read these next:

What's on this week: more Royal Ascot entries revealed before Group action at Haydock and final leg of US Triple Crown 

David Menuisier most definitely a trainer worth noting while Ryan Moore shines again at Epsom 

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.