Only two horses since Shergar in 1981 have completed the Chester Vase–Derby double – both trained by Aidan O’Brien.
That single data point gives the 247th running of the Betfred Derby an analytical anchor before a single horse has walked into the stalls. I
TV Racing broadcasts all six races live from Epsom from 13:30 on Saturday 6 June, with the card bookended by a 7f Group 3 curtain-raiser and a 1m2f handicap honouring the greatest jockey to ever ride at these Downs.
The headline selection is Benvenuto Cellini at 2/1 for the 16:00 – a son of Frankel who sluiced up in the G3 Chester Vase by 4.25 lengths 31 days ago and now carries the considerable weight of Ryan Moore’s fifth-win ambition.
Epsom Derby Day 2 Tips
- 13:30 Epsom – Ten Bob Tony @ 11/2
- 14:05 Epsom – Breckenbrough @ 12/1
- 14:40 Epsom – Calandagan @ 10/11
- 15:15 Epsom – Dyonisos @ 15/2
- 16:00 Epsom – Benvenuto Cellini @ 2/1
- 16:40 Epsom – Allegresse @ 9/2
Odds are for entertainment purposes only and subject to change.
13:30 Epsom – Betfred Tattenham Corner Stakes Tips
Betfred’s Alan Firkins calls this G3 seven-furlong opener – run over the same track that will host the Derby runners hours later – “wide-open in fairness,” but the form trail back to last year’s renewal is unusually direct. Ten Bob Tony won this race 12 months ago when it was staged at Haydock Park, and now he bids to repeat the feat on the Epsom version rated just 2lb higher. That is a modest rise for a horse who subsequently franked his form by running 1.75 lengths behind Big Gossey at the Curragh in March on soft/heavy ground – and Big Gossey has since gone close in Group 2 company.
The five-year-old Night Of Thunder gelding is drawn in stall 3, which suits a horse that habitually travels in behind the leaders and appreciates a clean passage on the inner. Trainer Ed Walker is operating at a 23% strike-rate over the last 14 days, and Kieran Shoemark – who knows this horse intimately – takes the ride. Any cut in the ground, forecast to arrive before the card is done, will not inconvenience him.
The dangers are real in a wide-open 7f heat, but the combination of course-and-distance experience, proven form on soft ground, an in-form yard, and a jockey booking that signals confidence makes this the clearest value call on the early part of the card. The horse’s three wins from 16 starts paint a modest picture – but context matters, and his best form is entirely good enough here.
- 🥇 Ten Bob Tony – 11/2
- 🥈 Big Gossey’s conqueror – watch the market
- 🥉 Any soft-ground specialist with a prominent draw
The Bet: Ten Bob Tony to win the 13:30 Betfred Tattenham Corner Stakes at 11/2 with Betfred.
14:05 Epsom – Princess Elizabeth Stakes Tips
Champion jockey Oisin Murphy has a 21% strike-rate over the last 14 days, and his booking on the French-trained Breckenbrough for this Group 3 fillies’ and mares’ contest at 12/1 is the most interesting piece of information on the entire race card outside the Derby itself. Murphy has deep ties with the Andrew Balding operation at Kingsclere – the very stable where Breckenbrough was housed until last August before relocating to Mario Baratti in France. The suggestion from Firkins that Murphy may have ridden her on the gallops is entirely plausible given that history, and that kind of insider knowledge carries weight at 12/1.
The four-year-old Kingman filly steps up into Group 3 company, but her form has taken off since the switch to France and she is evidently much more comfortable with cut in the ground – which is precisely what Epsom is likely to offer. She has not yet shown anything close to her ceiling, and an improving filly with a top jockey in the right conditions at a double-figure price is the textbook each-way play.
The market is headed by She’s Perfect at 3/1 and Pacific Mission at 4/1, both of whom have solid cases, but neither offers the value combination that Breckenbrough presents. This is unambiguously each-way territory, and the 12/1 feels generous for a horse whose upward trajectory has not yet been fully priced in.
- 🥇 Breckenbrough – 12/1 (each-way)
- 🥈 She’s Perfect – 3/1
- 🥉 Pacific Mission – 4/1
The Bet: Breckenbrough each-way in the 14:05 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at 12/1 with Betfred.
14:40 Epsom – Calandagan Coronation Cup Tips
The Calandagan Coronation Cup storyline is one of the more compelling on the entire Derby Day card. Twelve months ago, Jan Brueghel beat him in this very race over this very trip. Since that defeat, Calandagan has not been beaten once in five starts – winning five Group 1 contests across France, England, Tokyo, and Meydan. He is, as Firkins puts it without a trace of hyperbole, “quite simply one of the planet’s premier middle-distance racehorses,” and a huge credit to trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.
Jan Brueghel re-opposes, which means the form line runs directly through last year’s result. The honest caveat is that a crawling pace could suit the defending champion and replicate last year’s conditions – a genuine tactical threat in what is likely to be a small-ish field. If Jan Brueghel’s connections engineer a dawdle up to the two-furlong pole, this becomes a different race entirely. Bay City Roller and Illinois are also in the mix and could contribute to a tactical affair.
Even so, 10/11 is the price of a banker, not a bet to shop around. Calandagan’s global dominance since finishing second in the Coronation Cup 12 months ago is the form of a horse operating at the very top of the middle-distance division. This is a watch-and-savour race in terms of spectacle – but as a betting proposition, the favourite is as close to a certainty as this sport offers.
- 🥇 Calandagan – 10/11
- 🥈 Jan Brueghel – if the pace is slow
- 🥉 Bay City Roller – small-field wildcard
The Bet: Calandagan to win the 14:40 Coronation Cup at 10/11 with Betfred.
15:15 Epsom – Betfred Dash Tips (Epsom Dash Tips)
The Betfred Dash – the sprint before the Derby, twenty runners, five furlongs, maximum chaos, and all over in approximately 60 seconds. Firkins does not overstate it when he describes this race as one that could “redefine the word hectic.” Run it a dozen times and you will plausibly get a dozen different results. The key variable in this maximum-field heritage handicap is the draw: Epsom’s five-furlong course runs sharply downhill, and the stands’-side rail is where races are won. High draws are gold. Dyonisos has drawn stall 15 out of 20. That is the first reason to be interested.
The second reason is his last run – a head defeat at Goodwood 15 days ago over another quirky, downhill five-furlong course that is about as close a simulation of what awaits here as the British calendar provides. The assessor raised him just one pound for that near-miss, which is a gift. Trainer Ian Williams sends him here in excellent nick, and David Egan – who rode him at Goodwood – retains the mount. For Epsom Dash tips, the combination of draw, course-specific recent form, and a lenient handicap mark is as clean a three-part case as you will find in a 20-runner sprint.
Five places are being paid at 1/5 odds – this is definitively each-way territory, and Betfred’s own tipster makes that call explicitly. Embrace it without hesitation.
- 🥇 Dyonisos – 15/2 (each-way)
- 🥈 High-drawn prominent racer – watch the market
- 🥉 Any proven Epsom/Goodwood 5f performer with a double-figure stall
The Bet: Dyonisos each-way in the 15:15 Betfred Dash at 15/2 with Betfred (five places, 1/5 odds).
16:00 Epsom – Betfred Derby 2026 Tips: Benvenuto Cellini vs the Field
The 247th running of the Betfred Derby. A race contested since 1780, and one that carries the weight of every great horse who has ever disappeared over the horizon at Epsom – Shergar, Dancing Brave, The Minstrel getting up in the shadow of the post with Lester Piggott’s persuader. The 2026 renewal, as Firkins notes, “looks an open affair,” and with 14 runners scheduled, several are entitled to dream. Aidan O’Brien has trained 11 Derby winners and enters four horses here, seeking a fourth successive victory – an unprecedented sequence – having won with Auguste Rodin (2023), City of Troy (2024), and Lambourn (2025).
Betfred’s Selection: Benvenuto Cellini @ 2/1
Benvenuto Cellini is the selection from Betfred’s Alan Firkins, and the case is built on a foundation that trends analysts will recognise immediately. The son of Frankel – who was never asked to tackle Epsom in his own illustrious career – won three of his five races, including a scintillating G3 Chester Vase success 31 days ago by 4.25 lengths. The way he travelled and quickened on the Roodee was the work of a horse with considerably more to offer, and stall 12 in the Derby draw is, as Racing TV’s panel noted, “a perfectly workable position” given the short run to Epsom’s first bend.
Ryan Moore takes the ride seeking his fifth Derby win – Workforce (2010), Ruler of the World (2013), Auguste Rodin (2023), City of Troy (2024) – and Moore’s record in this race is not coincidental. He does not make errors on this track. The Chester Vase–Derby double has been completed twice since 1981, both times by O’Brien horses, and Benvenuto Cellini fits that mould precisely.
Betfair Analyst Sam Turner’s Biomechanics-Led 1-2-3
Betfair analyst Sam Turner’s biomechanics-led Derby assessment places Benvenuto Cellini first – the lowest cadence in the field at 2.0 strides per second, peak stride extension in excess of 26 feet, and a Chester run that broke the track record. Turner names James J Braddock second at 10/1 – a cadence of 2.11 strides per second and what Turner describes as a “grinder’s stride profile” that suits a true, honest gallop over the Derby distance. The JP O’Brien-trained son of Zarak won his Leopardstown Cashel Palace Derby Trial and is bred to stay every yard of the 1m4f trip. Third in Turner’s sequence is Ancient Egypt at 14/1 – a Frankel colt with a stride extension of 26.4 feet, drawn in stall 10 (historically one of the more productive boxes in the Derby), and a Racing Post rating earned at Newmarket that marks him as a legitimate each-way contender.
Pierre Bonnard at 11/2, stablemate to Benvenuto Cellini and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, is the horse multiple sources – including William Hill’s Steve Mullington – name as the most dangerous in the field. His sire Camelot won the Derby; his dam’s sire New Approach won the Derby. The pedigree for Epsom is as close to purpose-built as exists in the 2026 field. The ground caveat for Benvenuto Cellini is real – good to soft is not ideal for a horse who quickened smartly on quicker ground at Chester – and Pierre Bonnard, who bolted up on very soft ground in his G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, will not be inconvenienced by cut underfoot.
Item at 4/1, trained by Andrew Balding and ridden by Colin Keane, won the Dante at York by 2.75 lengths over Action and Christmas Day and represents the strongest Classic-trial form in the field outside the Chester Vase. The question mark is stamina over 1m4f for the first time. Bay Of Brilliance at 12/1 – a neck second in the Lingfield Derby Trial behind Maltese Cross – has proven wet-weather credentials and draws a comparison with Adayaar, who finished second in the Lingfield Trial before winning the Derby in 2021. That is not a swerve at the price.
The horses to side against at short odds are those whose trial form has been partially flattered or whose draw makes a clean run unlikely. Maltese Cross at 9/1 is drawn in stall 1 – the inside box on Epsom’s short-run-to-the-bend configuration is a position that demands perfection from horse and jockey, and perfection is rarely forthcoming with 13 rivals crossing in front. The honest verdict on stall 1 in a 14-runner Derby is that you are starting with a disadvantage you cannot afford at 9/1. For the Epsom Derby 2026, the ground, the draw, the biomechanics data, and the trainer trends all point in the same direction.
- 🥇 Benvenuto Cellini – 2/1 (win)
- 🥈 James J Braddock – 10/1 (each-way, Sam Turner’s #2)
- 🥉 Pierre Bonnard – 11/2 (each-way, ideal Epsom pedigree)
Value each-way: Bay Of Brilliance at 12/1 – Lingfield Trial second, proven soft-ground form, and a trainer in Ralph Beckett who handles stayers with authority.
The Bet: Benvenuto Cellini to win the 16:00 Betfred Derby at 2/1 with Betfred.
The Bet: James J Braddock each-way in the Betfred Derby at 10/1 with Betfred.
16:40 Epsom – Lester Piggott Handicap Tips
The ITV Racing tips for Saturday close with a 1m2f Class 2 handicap named for the nine-time Derby winner whose ghost haunts every inch of Epsom Downs – Lester Piggott, the Long Fellow, nine Derbies, a genius who was 5ft 8″ and rode as if the weight of history sat lightly on his shoulders. The race that carries his name in 2026 features a three-year-old who Firkins believes has Group horse potential in a handicap context, and that is the sharpest horse racing tips Saturday framework there is. Allegresse at 9/2 is an Oasis Dream gelding trained by Andrew Balding and ridden again by Oisin Murphy – his second high-profile assignment of the afternoon.
The horse has two wins from five starts, but his last run – 2.5 lengths beaten at Goodwood 36 days ago – produced a standout Racing Post rating and came on his first appearance since a gelding operation. That combination of a gelding-galvanised performance and an RPR that significantly exceeded his official mark means the assessor has not yet fully caught up with what this horse is capable of. He is top-rated in the field and carries 9st 9lb, but the weight burden is the price you pay for being the best horse in the race. Murphy’s 21% strike-rate over the last 14 days adds a layer of jockey-form confidence that is difficult to dismiss at 9/2.
Allegresse is relatively unexposed, improving, and in the hands of connections who know exactly what they have. For ITV racing tips on Saturday, this is the closer that makes the card sing.
- 🥇 Allegresse – 9/2
- 🥈 Watch the market for second-string handicappers
- 🥉 Any progressive three-year-old drawn centrally
The Bet: Allegresse to win the 16:40 Lester Piggott Handicap at 9/2 with Betfred.
Derby Day 2026 Tips Summary – Best Bets for Saturday
- 13:30: Ten Bob Tony – 11/2 win (Betfred)
- 14:05: Breckenbrough – 12/1 each-way (Betfred)
- 14:40: Calandagan – 10/11 win (Betfred)
- 15:15: Dyonisos – 15/2 each-way, five places 1/5 odds (Betfred)
- 16:00: Benvenuto Cellini – 2/1 win (Betfred)
- 16:00: James J Braddock – 10/1 each-way (Betfred)
- 16:40: Allegresse – 9/2 win (Betfred)
Odds are for entertainment purposes only and subject to change.
The standout bet of the day is the win double on Calandagan and Benvenuto Cellini – both selections carry analytical consensus from multiple sources, both are trained by handlers operating at peak form, and the combination at Betfred returns a price that reflects a genuinely open Derby card rather than two racing certainties. Calandagan’s five-race winning sequence since his Coronation Cup second last year is the form of a horse who will not be stopped without a tactical masterclass from Jan Brueghel’s camp. And Benvenuto Cellini, with Moore up and the Chester Vase under his belt, has the exact profile the trends demand.
The Bet: Win double – Calandagan (14:40) and Benvenuto Cellini (16:00) with Betfred.
