Colm Greaves on the Epsom Derby: Box clever with Braddock

Item and the favourite Benvenuto Cellini look like top of the ground types and may need to wait for drier times.

CLASSIC CONTENDERS: James J Braddock gets up late to thwart Pierre Bonnard in the Group 3 Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown last month. The classy pair may fight out the finish at Epsom today. Picture: Healy Racing

FOR a simple horse race, the Epsom Derby has morphed into a carnival of complicated controversy in recent years.

It wasn’t too long ago when Derby Day was a ride to the course on an open-topped bus on a Wednesday afternoon in early June, lively hours passed on the infield the help of a gallon of warm ale and a pound each-way on Lester’s nag in the big one before dozing your way happily back to Hackney while the sun went down.