Saturday’s Derby at Epsom promises to be a fascinating spectacle. Aidan O’Brien has won five of the last eight runnings but, even though the Co Tipperary trainer looks set to provide almost half the field next weekend, he does not have the favourite or even the second favourite.

Heading the market is the regally-named English King, trained by 35-year-old Ed Walker and owned by businessman Bjorn Nielsen, who has enjoyed great success with the stayer Stradivarius.

English King burst on to the scene by winning the Lingfield Derby Trial in track record time last month. This is a race previously won by Shergar, and more recently by the 2019 Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, and a simple reading of the form infers that English King is as good, if not better, than Irish Derby winner Santiago.

However, Nielsen is worried that his Derby hope might struggle to get a fair passage in the race, hinting in a recent interview that the O’Brien runners may adopt ‘team tactics’ and box in the favourite at a crucial stage.

To this end, Nielsen has signed up his old pal Frankie Dettori to do the steering on English King at Epsom.

Nielsen has shown himself to be a good sport in the past and so it is disappointing to see him come out with a thinly-veiled accusation that O’Brien and Coolmore are ‘fixers’.

Yes, Ballydoyle frequently saddle a big squad of runners in the Derby but what kind of race would it be without them?

Last Saturday Aidan O’Brien was responsible for six of the 14 runners in the Irish Derby. Moments before the race the trainer was interviewed on RTÉ and he outlined how each horse was likely to be ridden, which ones would go forward and which ones would be held up at the back. The stalls opened and the race panned out exactly as O’Brien had predicted.

If the stewards at Epsom had any concerns at all about the intentions of the Tipperary ‘team’, they should call in the trainer before the race next Saturday and ask him what riding instructions he is giving to his jockeys. They would get it chapter and verse.

The real issue is that Coolmore have so many credible Derby candidates each year that they can afford to send a couple out in front to set a strong pace, place another couple in the middle, while another one or two lurk in rear. If you are Frankie Dettori on board England’s great white hope, you have to make an instant decision on whether you try to keep up with the front runners or bide your time at the back, in the hope the front-runners tire. Sometimes they don’t. It’s a high stakes game of poker.

Ironically, because of quarantine restrictions, O’Brien is likely to enlist the services of English-based jockeys for all his runners at Epsom. Working out the likely tactics of the Irish runners will not be difficult. Each of them will run their own race.

Ryan Moore will be on the one they think has the best chance. Dettori could ensure he has no traffic problems by simply following Moore throughout the race but what if Moore is on the ‘wrong’ horse?

It’s not unknown for one of the O’Brien outsiders to grab the glory. Wings Of Eagles was 40/1 when he won in 2017 and Sovereign was 33/1 when he won the Irish Derby last year. One of this year’s Ballydoyle longshots is named Amhran Na Bhfiann. The headline writers will have a field day if English King is dethroned by A Soldier’s Song.

The race is due off 4.55pm and will be shown live on Virgin Media One and ITV.