Chester’s prestigious three-day meeting follows hot on the heels of Newmarket and the Derby hopefuls will be on show in the MBNA Europe Bank Chester Vase (May 11), with the fillies taking centre stage in the Weatherbys Bank Cheshire Oaks on May 10. Barry Hills has a superb record on this turning track and any horse he runs in the previous two races will be worth close inspection.

On Wednesday May 10 the totesport Chester Cup is the meeting’s big betting race and recent Newmarket winner Mikao set down an early marker for this big staying prize. Four-year-olds often run well here and trainer Barry Hills boasts an excellent record. Friday, May 12, closes the Chester meeting and the feature race for the older horses is the Blue Square Ormonde Stakes landed last year by Day Flight.

The run of Classic trials continues at Lingfield on May 13 with the Letheby and Christopher Derby Trial and the totesport.com Oaks Trials respectively for the real things at Epsom the following month. It isn’t just the Classic colts and fillies that are in the firing-line at Lingfield because the Surrey course also stages the totesport Victoria Cup, a closely fought and always influential 7f handicap that frequently throws up a Royal Ascot winner or two.

Over in France the following day, May 14, the European Flat season raises the volume with the Poule de’Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas) and the Poulai d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1,000 Guineas) on the same card at Longchamp. Ballydoyle and Godolphin have begun to target these two important races in recent seasons and their runners should be respected, but Criquette Head-Maarek’s Quiet Royale will be fancied for the ‘Pouliches’ after a satisfactory spin in second at Longchmap the other day.

Flat racing’s domestic caravan rolls on to York for their three-day Dante meeting and the potential Oaks fillies will run in the Musidora Stakes on May 17, the meeting’s opening salvo which is now a Wednesday on account of the fixture moving forward by a single day.

On May 18 the Derby hopefuls will run in the Dante Stakes and it’s worth recalling that in recent times, North Light and Motivator, the last two winners of this race, have gone on to glory at Epsom in just over three weeks’ time, while looking a little further back in the race’s illustrious history, it’s worth noting that Shahrastani, Reference point, Erhaab and Benny The Dip all went on from the Dante to Derby success.