Dettori's ambitions rely on Tobougg

A life-changing day is almost upon us, when one figure will be picked to lead the rest and others will be cast into oblivion.

Whomever the racing gods choose to win the 222nd Derby on Saturday should at least not have a bruising journey around the swirling Tattenham Corner. A total of 14 were declared for the Blue Riband yesterday, and, even if all of those actually end up going to post, it will be the second smallest Derby field ­ Benny The Dip led home 12 others in 1997 ­ of the last 10 years.

It would be considerably less populated if Barry Hills had never been born. The Lambourn trainer saddles more than a quarter of the field with, in ante-post market order, Perfect Sunday, Chancellor, Storming Home and Mr Combustible running for Faringdon Place.

For a month, ever since the 2,000 Guineas, it has been the flag of Golan stuck at the top of the Derby betting mountain. However, such has been the recent support for the Irish colt Galileo and the favourite's stablemate at Michael Stoute's yard Dilshaan that Golan may ultimately be usurped at the head of the market.

There will, of course, be the frivolous public pounds on Frankie Dettori, who has yet to win the great race after eight attempts. The nearest he came, ironically, was in 1995, when Tamure was gathered in late by Lammtarra, an animal prepared by the Italian's Godolphin paymasters.

This time around, Dettori will ride the discredited Tobougg, who was a potential super horse before he soiled his reputation in the Guineas, finishing ninth to Golan. That will probably be Godolphin's only representation, though there is still a lingering possibility that Wareed, the runner-up in Goodwood's Predominate Stakes, will make the line-up.

"Going into the race we don't look particularly strong, but we will have to wait and see what goes past the winning post first," Simon Crisford, the Godolphin racing manager, said yesterday. "You never know.

"But certainly, on paper, it doesn't look as though we've got a strong representation. Having said that, we've turned up with red-hot favourites before like Dubai Millennium and Cape Verdi and got stuffed. We turned up with a horse that had not run as a three-year-old [Lammtarra in 1995] and he won, and City Honours got beaten a head [by High-Rise three years ago] in the tightest of finishes. And Best Of The Bests was fourth last year. So, our overall record in the race is quite encouraging because this is only our eighth season. Some people have been at it for 30-odd years and never won a Derby.

"The Guineas was Tobougg's principal target, but something went seriously wrong that day and we still don't know what it was. That's why we can't have full confidence in him. It's the memory of that dismal performance at Newmarket that's putting everyone off. Including us.

"He worked well before and since. The way he is training certainly gives us the impression he wants more than a mile but that doesn't necessarily mean a mile and a half.

"On paper he is not a mile- and-a-half horse, but horses have defied their pedigrees before now. But he is a dual Group One winner [in the Dewhurst Stakes and Prix de la Salamandre] as a two-year-old. We might be clutching at straws, but if he can recapture that sparkle and form, if there is some sort of recovery, then you could not rule him out. You cannot get away from that Group One form. It applies to Golan, it applies to Dilshaan and it applies to Tobougg if you like.

"Wareed is guaranteed to stay but on all known evidence so far he hasn't got sufficient class."

A possible reshaping of the Derby contestants will take place at the Jockey Club this morning when Kieren Fallon will appeal against the suspension meted out by the Ayr stewards on Thursday, the ban which has ruled him out of the Derby.

The officials in Scotland found him guilty of irresponsible riding of a minor nature, which absented him for three days. However, if the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee rule the misdemeanour to be merely careless or accidental, Fallon would be free to ride Golan.

* Kieren Fallon was at his strongest as he drove Gascon home in the seller at Leicester yesterday. He did not have to work as hard to double up on Sir Michael Stoute's Artillery in the maiden race. Fallon brought Gascon with a good run to get on top inside the final furlongs and kept him going to hold Tommy Smith. It was a first winner of the turf season for the trainer Denis Coakley, who said: "Kieren was strong enough on him and that is what won the race. This was his first ride for me and at least, if he is on your side he is not riding against you."

* The Brian Meehan-trained Gryffindor, who had been third to the Derby hope Chancellor in the Sandown Classic Trial, finished only fourth in the Group Two Grosser Muller Brot Preis over a mile and a quarter in Munich yesterday.

In a dramatic race, Zollner was first past the post, beating Royal Dragon by three-quarters of a length, only for the placings to be reversed by the stewards.