Diomed stakes offers plenty of opportunities

Diomed was of course the very first winner of the Derby way back in 1784 and the race named after him and run over the distance that he won his Derby over, one mile, is one of the supporting races on Saturday's card. The race is of Group 3 status and the first thing to say about past runnings of the race is that it is not a good one for favourites, or even second favourites, with seven of the last ten winners being positioned third to sixth in the betting.

One of the other important statistics to consider is that it is very important that your selection finished in the first four last time out as all of the past ten winners pass that trait, and the race also suits those being raised in class – eight of the last ten winners conformed to that pattern and it may be that the race suits those who don't have to carry a penalty for previous Group race success. It looks especially difficult to carry the Group 1 penalty in this race which is a 7lb one and that could make life especially for Rio De La Plata on Saturday, the only runner attempting to do this and those looking at the Epsom odds really need to bear this in mind.

What does strike us about the majority of the past winners is that nearly all of them have been ridden up with or close to the pace, and that style of racing really does seem to suit runners in this race. Hold-up horses and those coming from way back may well have found those pressing on gone beyond recall.

We have already mentioned that favourites are a negative in this race and so are horses that had their last run over 10F or further – those longer trips appearing to blunt their pace for this quicker race. You also need to be wary of horses that were beaten by more than five lengths last time out they have a record of 0/24.
The field of eight on Saturday could well be whittled down using these statistics and may make it an easier puzzle to solve on the Derby Day card.