It's been 12 years since his last one and there have been some tough times.

But all was happy again when an inexperienced horse called Desert Crown took the Epsom Crown with ease.

As he crossed the line our immediate thought was "he'll win the Arc" and since the Derby was only his third start there is every reason to think that this could be the case.

Desert Crown, a son of Nathaniel, had impressed in his previous two outings and had been carefully progressed through his short career by the maestro Sir Michael Stoute, who knows what a potentially great horse looks like and how to bring them along.

Richard Kingscote was given the ride and did not let the side down – quite the opposite giving his horse every chance to gain confidence in the run – in fact he had to steady him before he allowed him to go full pelt to the line and thus had a horse with the strength to run out the trip with a fast finish.

There were surprises as usual in the Derby with Andrew Balding's Hoo Ya Mai finishing second on 150/1 and Westover – arguably unlucky – third at 25/1.  No excuses for the beaten brigade except that the winner is showing the qualities of a great horse.

It was good to see the horse's groom recognised in the trophy presentation.

Earlier in the day the Princess Elizabeth saw the Chevely Park colours collect the quinella with Bashkirova winning from Potapova and Roman Mist running third, all in market order.

The Diomed G3 went to Megallan with Modern News second and favourite Mutasaabeq third – they were the top three in the market although finishing in a different order so no major surprises there.