We round up the best Saturday bets from the Timeform analysts on Betfred Derby day at Epsom and at Punchestown.
HASHTAG PRETENDER - 13:50 Punchestown (Billy Nash)
It is not all about the Derby today and there is a very interesting jumps card at Punchestown, where the best bet may well be Hashtag Pretender. He has only had two runs over fences but shaped well on both occasions, particularly when splitting Downmexicoway and Addragoole (both of whom went on to win handicaps from marks in 130s) in a maiden at Kilbeggan in August. Hashtag Pretender is best around two miles, has a hood on for the first time which should make him a bit more tractable and Barry Connell showed with Apple's of Bresil last week that he is well capable of having one ready after a break.
DEMOCRACY DILEMMA - 15:15 Epsom (Greg Spink)
A typically open-looking renewal of the ultimate test of speed in British racing and it’s top-weight Democracy Dilemma who catches my eye. He’s featured in this the past couple of years, his better effort when runner-up in 2024 from 3lb higher, and a few lesser efforts this season mean he’s now back down to his last winning mark. Perhaps more crucial is the reapplication of a visor and versatile with regards ground, Robert Cowell’s 6-y-o may well take some pegging back.
PIERRE BONNARD - 16:00 Epsom (Rory King)
Pierre Bonnard mightn't have advanced his form in a pair of trial runs this spring - disappointing in the Ballysax before pipped by James J Braddock in the other Leopardstown trial - but it's likely that his campaign has been geared around peaking him for this first Saturday in June, and with the rain having arrived this week it could be that the impression he created in signing off 2025 with back-to-back wins over a mile and a quarter that saw him head into the winter as favourite for this is more significant than what he's shown so far this year. After all, it's not like some of the recent Ballydoyle winners arrived at Epsom on the back of compelling efforts early in May, and it's worth remembering it was recent luckless Prix du Jockey Club fourth A Boy Named Susie he beat readily to land the Criterium de Saint-Cloud. A stiff mile and a half on softish ground should bring out plenty more from a colt with no shortage of stamina in his pedigree.
SOLAR ACLAIM - 17:55 Epsom (David Johnson)
A race that attracts regulars, no less than half a dozen of these having contested the same race last year and while it was Sondad that came out on top, Solar Aclaim shaped very well despite finishing only seventh, making a rapid move down the centre of the course at halfway to get to the front but unable to sustain it on what was clearly a disadvantaged part of the track with the going having turned soft by then. He confirmed that promise by winning his next two starts, including at Yarmouth from a BHA mark of 90. He's run more bad races than good since, but has dropped to a mark of 86 as a result and he hasn't always had his conditions, two outings over 7f this spring wholly unsuitable. Conditions look better here, with every drop of rain forecast on Saturday in his favour and while his trainer has had a relatively quiet spring, three winners and a second in the last week or so suggest she is turning a corner. Initial odds placing Solar Aclaim among the rank outsiders look wide of the mark.
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