Kevin Stott’s William Hill Blog: I’ll need nerves of Steel for my first Derby

I’m really looking forward to riding in my first ever Derby ride. It’ll be a pleasure to be there whatever the result, but I’m still hoping for a couple of good performances from my rides today. Just two rides on the Saturday, and I hope they will do themselves justice on the tricky Epsom track.

Epsom, Saturday

In the Derby (13.30pm) I’m riding King Of Steel. He’s drawn in stall four, which is lower than I’d ideally like for him, but I’d hope that he can jump nicely so we can go and get a good early position. Luckily, we’ve got good horses either side of us (The Foxes and Dubai Mile), so we can jump with them and they might take us with them.

Unfortunately, he was withdrawn from the Dante having reared up in the stalls but he has had a stalls test since and plenty of practice at home. That problem should now be ironed out. He’ll wear a blindfold this time too, just to make sure.

As a result of that withdrawal, he’s only had two career runs and is very inexperienced, which needs to be considered, and Epsom is a quirky track which can be tricky to handle, but I hope he can step up to the mark.

Forca Timao is my second ride of the day, in the 10-furlong handicap (3.55pm). He ran a good race at Newbury last time, keeping his form consistent to his reappearance at Newmarket, but this is a totally different track. I think he could have dropped back in trip from his previous run, but we’re giving him another go over 1m2f.

My only question is, will he get up the hill? He’s only had four runs in total and is very much still learning, but he was actually pretty strong in his finish at Newbury, which is encouraging ahead of getting up that Epsom hill. Forca Timao is anything but a slow horse, and we haven’t yet found his ideal trip, but I want to be going for the frame here. He’s got a decent draw and I want to be making the best of it.