Gelding banned from the Classic despite winning Epsom Derby Trial

Epsom's laudable attempts to invigorate its Derby trial were left washed out after Goldoni, named after an Italian comic playwright, had the last laugh under the jockey David Probert. Goldoni, a gelding, is ineligible to take advantage of the 'win-and-you're-in' concession introduced this year that guarantees the winner of the Derby Trial a place in the line-up and a shot at the big race's newly boosted £1.325m prize pot. Geldings have been excluded from the Derby since 1904. The offer and another rise in prize money resulted in six runners being attracted to the Wednesday's race, an increase on recent years. But other than being staged over the same track, the Trial bore little resemblance to next month's Derby, being run in wet and windy conditions which saw the field set off at an ambling pace more familiar to three-mile steeplechasers than the finest bloodstock in the Flat-racing world. Nevertheless, Goldoni's trainer Andrew Balding was rightly unapologetic about Goldoni's 15-2 success over Mister Music. "It would have been nice to have a runner in the Derby but he wouldn't be the horse he is now if we hadn't gelded him," said Balding. "His work has improved dramatically since we did it and I've no regrets. It's a good prize he's won and it's made him a very valuable horse. We'll probably go for the Lingfield Derby Trial now and then he'll have an entry in the King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot, in which geldings can run. "If he stays sound, he can hopefully go on for years and years and give us a lot of fun. He's high-class. I wouldn't say he works as well as anything at home, but he's not far off." On a damp and dismal afternoon that failed to show Epsom in its best light, racecourse officials could at least feel an inward glow that Investec has already signed a remarkable 10-year sponsorship deal that will see the investment bank support the Derby until 2021. Until recent years, racing has becoming used to operating on a hand-to-mouth basis over sponsorship of some of its biggest events. But Investec's support of the Derby provides significant affirmation of the sport's status, particularly with the race set to relocate from the BBC to Channel 4 from next year as part of the recent broadcasting-rights deal. Investec's global head of marketing Raymond van Niekerk fired a gentle shot across the bows, saying that he thinks plenty in racing are "too ready to say no", but more encouragingly, he added: "Britain is lucky to have some brilliant key events in the sporting calendar and the Derby is very much one of those. We've done a few things in the three years that we have been sponsoring the race but we're now ready to take those things to another level."