Three of the ma­jor races of the Eng­lish flat sea­son take place on Fri­day (June 2) and Sat­ur­day (June 3) at Ep­som Downs.

The world’s most fa­mous Der­by, the Bet­fred Der­by takes place on Sat­ur­day while the Oaks and Dahlury Coro­na­tion Cup will take place Fri­day.

The Der­by and Oaks are re­strict­ed to three-year-old colts and fil­lies re­spec­tive­ly while the Coro­na­tion Cup is open to four years old and overs. All of these clas­sics take place over a dis­tance of one mile and four fur­longs and it could be a big meet­ing for su­per sire Frankel.

Dahlbury Coro­na­tion Cup (Group 1)

A smash­ing field of nine old­er hors­es has been en­tered for this clas­sic event with four high-class hors­es dom­i­nat­ing the bet­ting for the event. 2022 Oaks run­ner-up, Emi­ly Up­john is ex­pect­ed to make her 2023 de­but in this event and this fil­ly who was an un­lucky run­ner-up in that event is strong­ly fan­cied to give Frankie Det­tori a win in his fi­nal Coro­na­tion Cup ride. This fil­ly im­pres­sive­ly won the Cham­pi­on Fil­lies and Mares Stakes (Group 1) in her fi­nal start in 2022 but she was well beat­en in her on­ly try against the op­po­site sex in 2022.

While there were ex­cus­es that day, she will have to con­tend with two cham­pi­on sons of Frankel in the Coro­na­tion Cup. Jud­dmonte’s West­over was a fast fin­ish­ing third in the 2022 Der­by be­fore run­ning away with the 2022 Irish Der­by.

His sea­son tailed off some­what af­ter that but he re­turned in 2023 to run a high­ly re­spectable sec­ond to Japan­ese cham­pi­on and the world’s best horse, Equinox, in the 2023 Dubai Sheema Clas­sic. On that form, he is the one they all have to beat. An­oth­er son of Frankel, Hur­ri­cane Lane, al­so stands in the way of Emi­ly Up­john.

This five-year-old was third in the 2021 Der­by be­fore win­ning that year’s Irish Der­by and St Leg­er. On his last start, he sig­nalled his re­turn to form with an im­pres­sive win in the Jock­ey Club Cup at New­mar­ket’s Guineas meet­ing. The younger hors­es may just have his mea­sure.

Aidan O’Brien runs three in Broome, Changin­gofthe­guard and Point Lons­dale. The lat­ter is the best fan­cied of the trio but he strug­gled to win his last start at Chester and meets a high­er-qual­i­ty field on this oc­ca­sion. On form, West­over is the best in this field and the se­lec­tion to win.

Bet­fred Oaks (Group 1)

A field of fif­teen fil­lies has been en­tered for this fil­lies’ clas­sic. The red-hot favourite for the Oaks is the Aidan O’Brien-trained Savethe­last­dance. This daugh­ter of Galileo owes her po­si­tion in the mar­ket to her 22-length romp in Chester’s Cheshire Oaks. She beat a very mediocre field that day and the go­ing was quite soft which could ex­ag­ger­ate win­ning dis­tances.

She could be vul­ner­a­ble against bet­ter qual­i­ty hors­es and on a dif­fer­ent sur­face. Her train­er has five oth­er en­tries in the event but none of them make much ap­peal al­though they are all im­pec­ca­bly bred. The main chal­lengers to Savethe­last­dance would be the Gos­den’s duo of Musi­do­raw­in­ner Soul Sis­ter and Run­ning Li­on, an im­pres­sive win­ner of the Pret­ty Pol­ly.

All of these races are proven sources of Oaks win­ners, and in Soul Sis­ter, the Gos­dens have a daugh­ter of Frankel who will al­so pro­vide Frankie Det­tori with his fi­nal ride in an Oaks.

This fil­ly was su­per im­pres­sive at York and the on­ly ques­tion mark could be the un­der­foot con­di­tions since she would not want it too soft. Run­ning Li­on was al­so im­pres­sive but there is a nag­ging doubt over her abil­i­ty to stay the clas­sic dis­tance be­ing a daugh­ter of Roar­ing Li­on.

Oth­ers with a bit of a chance are Godol­phin’s Eter­nal Hope who grit­ti­ly won the Oaks Tri­al at Ling­field and Heartache Tonight who was a good fourth in the Prix Sant Alary at Longchamp. This race is much more com­pet­i­tive than the bet­ting would sug­gest and Frankel’s Soul Sis­ter is se­lect­ed to win the race for Frankie.

Bet­fred Der­by (Group 1)

This is one of the most open Der­bies in re­cent years. Once again two sons of Frankel take on a field made up of nu­mer­ous tri­al win­ners and a dis­ap­point­ing 2023 Guineas favourite. The Guineas favourite, Au­guste Rodin was nev­er at the races at New­mar­ket and trailed in near­er to last than first be­hind the Guineas win­ner, Frankel’s son Chaldean.

His train­er Aidan O’Brien had an­oth­er dis­ap­point­ing well fan­cied Guineas run­ner in Lit­tle Big Bear and that colt re­turned to win the Sandy Lane Cup at Hay­dock which must pro­vide the sta­ble with some con­fi­dence of a re­vival from this son of Japan­ese su­per sire, Deep Im­pact. He faces much tougher op­po­si­tion than his sta­ble com­pan­ion, how­ev­er. Der­by’s favourite is Godol­phin’s son of Frankel, Mil­i­tary Or­der.

This colt is seek­ing to em­u­late his full broth­er, the 2021 Der­by win­ner, Ada­yar, and he has al­ready bet­tered his broth­er when im­pres­sive­ly win­ning the Der­by Tri­al (Ada­yar was sec­ond in the 2021 equiv­a­lent).

An­oth­er son of Frankel, Jud­dmonte’s Ar­rest, trained by the Gos­dens, was an im­pres­sive win­ner of the Chester Vase and will be seek­ing to give Frankie Det­tori a win in his fi­nal Der­by ride. This colt has sta­mi­na in abun­dance with the ques­tion mark be­ing that he would not want the go­ing too firm.

Oth­ers to con­sid­er are the Dante win­ner, The Fox­es, Guineas fifth, Dubai Mile, Leop­ard­stown­Der­by Tri­al win­ner Sprewell and the Dante sec­ond and third, White Birch and Pas­sen­ger. The lat­ter has been some­thing of a talk­ing horse for train­er, Sir Michael Stoute, fol­low­ing up an im­pres­sive win in the Wood Dit­ton with an un­lucky third in the Dante.

He could be any­thing but I pre­fer the two Frankel colts, Mil­i­tary Or­der and Ar­rest with a nar­row pref­er­ence for Godol­phin’s Mil­i­tary Or­der. A fas­ci­nat­ing race is in prospect,