A CORRESPONDENT got in touch with me via Twitter after last week’s Time Will Tell column, asking me why I was intent on “running down” the Irish Derby: “what point is there?” he asked.

It was certainly not my intention to run down either of the first two, Harzand or Idaho, who I acknowledged had already achieved plenty in finishing first and third in a strongly-run Derby at Epsom. But it is my responsibility to appraise results as objectively as possible from an overall and sectional timing angle.