[Sport] Outsider Third Realm first past the post in Lingfield Derby Trial.

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When there has been plenty of rain overnight and Lingfield’s Classic trials are both won by the outsider of the field, it would be easy to dismiss the results as offering few worthwhile clues to the Derby and Oaks at Epsom next month. The horses, though, control neither the weather nor the betting, and Third Realm earned serious consideration as a Derby candidate here on Saturday with a convincing defeat of Adayar, the 6-5 favourite, in a race which was won by High-Rise, in the same yellow colours, before his Epsom success 23 years ago.

Third Realm started the season as a maiden and just one among at least half a dozen colts in Roger Varian’s stable, probably more, with the pedigree to be a Derby horse if or when they stepped up to middle-distances.

He was worth a punt in a novice and a trial, in other words, and having got off the mark on good-to-firm ground at Nottingham last month, further progress allowed Third Realm to put Saturday’s race to bed with a strong surge into the lead a quarter of a mile from home.

His 14-1 win came as a surprise to the punters but not entirely so to his trainer, who also took the Dee Stakes at Chester two days ago with El Drama.

“The three-year-olds are showing themselves to be a nice bunch,” Varian said. “He had quite a big setback in the June of his two-year-old career so we didn’t really know too much about him [at the start of the season], but he was one that was in the Derby and was always going to try to win his novice in April and go for a trial if he deserved to. I’d be lying if I said I thought in March he was a definite Derby candidate, but he’s a horse that we’ve always liked, if that makes any sense.

“I was very pleased when he won at Nottingham, he got a bit lost in the straight but if you watch him over the line, he’s taken off. If it was another 100 yards, he’d have won five lengths. He’s not a big horse, he’s neat and very well-balanced and athletic. He handled the track well here and I can see him handling Epsom, so I think he ticks a lot of the boxes.”

The bookmakers tend to agree and having been a 100-1 chance for the Derby on Saturday morning, Third Realm is now generally a 12-1 shot, with one bookmaker still offering 16-1 on Saturday evening. His success here could also increase the chance that El Drama will head to the French Derby, over 10 furlongs, rather than Epsom over 12, while Varian also retains high hopes for Royal Champion, a likely runner in the Dante Stakes at York next week.