One Horse, One Trainer, One Jockey On Day One At Epsom

The horse that we think is the one to follow on day one of the Derby festival at Epsom Downs is the Aidan O'Brien trained Pink Dogwood in the feature Group 1 on Friday in the Epsom Oaks.

The three year old daughter of Camelot looks to to be the record breaking trainers best chance in the contest and currently holds claims at the top of the betting market.

She has raced five times in her career showing clear ability as a two year old at the back end of last season finishing second at the Curragh on her first two starts and then getting off the mark in a decent maiden at Gowran Park.

This season she has only raced once and now a three year old has matured a huge amount making her a bigger and stronger filly that has a serious chance to and her first Group 1.

Her seasonal debut on her first time over 1 mile 2f was brilliant, staying on well in a Listed contest at Navan to suggest this Classic race would be more than in her grasp.

She is stepping up to 1 mile 4f for the first time but the way she ran on her return suggested that the step up would suit her and her pedigree also backs this up.

The trainer on the first day at Epsom to follow in our opinion has to be the consistent Charlie Appleby who will be looking to make his mark nice an early at a meeting where he grabbed the Epsom Derby last year with Masar.

The Englishman is the poster boy for Godolphin racing in the UK and holds some nice entires in many of the contests on Friday and in the build up to the Classic on Saturday he could gain a few winners.

In the first race of the day the Class 2 Woodcote Stakes he has the favourite Pinatubo who won nicely on his only run in his career at Wolverhampton on the all weather.

The two year old son of Sharmadal like many of the field is unexposed but from his run at Wolverhampton the second and third have gone on to frank the form and win next time out which could make him dangerous.

In the Coronation Cup he has Old Persian who was the winner of the Group 2 Great Voltigeur at York last year having that form franked massively.

This season he has won both his races over in Meydan with his first being a Group 2 but his second being the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic which looks superb form heading into this contest.

The final one on what could be a special day for the trainer is Space Blues in the Listed Surrey Stakes. This three year old got his act together last time out at York when dropped to seven furlong

Running at the same distance today and having a decent win a Class 3 under his belt should see hum improve for this test.

Finally the jockey to watch out for round Tattenham corner on day one is the superb James Doyle that might not be having his most prolific season to date but heads into the meeting in great form.

He landed a four timer yesterday at Yarmouth which came at a perfect time for the jockey who will be full of confidence holding some promising rides over the two days.

Doyle, due to the illness of Godolphin's number one rider William Buick has seen him pick up many good rides that he wouldn't have normally have been given.

This gives him a huge opportunity on the likes of Old Persian, Space Blues and Pinatubo that have already been mentioned for Charlie Appleby but he also holds some other decent rides.

He rides Frankellina in the Oaks for William Haggas who he also has another two rides throughout the day for but this being his biggest for the Newmarket trainer and this Daughter of Frankel holds an each way chance.