FA Cup balls ready for a wide-open Derby with no obvious winner

Up to 19 runners could line up to take on favourite Delacroix with the market leaders all looking vulnerable

UNEASY FAVOURITE: Delacroix heads the Derby market at a top price of 11-4 but his position may yet be usurped. Picture: Damien Eagers/PA 

Epsom has hired the balls and equipment used in FA Cup draws to add a touch of glamour to proceedings when the stall positions in Saturday’s Derby are allocated in the town centre on Wednesday. From a punter’s perspective, however, a wide-open race and one of the biggest fields this century promise to be the only selling points required for the 246th running of the Classic. Twenty colts remain in contention at the penultimate declaration stage on Monday.

There are few sights in the sport to match the spectacle and excitement of a big field charging down the Epsom hill towards Tattenham Corner, but it is 22 years since Kris Kin and Kieren Fallon beat 19 rivals, the only Derby since the turn of the century with a maximum field of 20. That size field is still a possibility thanks to the addition of two lightly raced dark horses on Monday at a cost of £75k apiece.