RACING EPSOM DERBY:WHAT'S PUZZLING about the 2010 Epsom Derby is that it is perfectly possible to acclaim Workforce as an exceptional winner while at the same time querying the quality of the horses that finished behind him.

Certainly the bare figures stack up in Workforce’s favour: a seven-length success for Michael Stoute’s fifth Derby hero is the widest winning margin since the first of them, Shergar, back in 1981, while his time broke Lammtara’s 15-year-old record by almost a second.

Throw in how it was only Workforce’s third ever start and how he completed the Oaks-Derby double for his jockey Ryan Moore and it is easy to understand how the official handicappers have rated Saturday’s blue-ribbon performance at 128, a full 4lb superior to last year’s winner Sea The Stars.

But the detritus strewn behind Workforce down the sun-soaked Epsom straight hardly rates as the finest trial tackle for a horse now supposedly rated to have out-run Sea The Stars in the world’s most famous Classic.

Runner-up was the 100 to 1 outsider At First Sight, whose primary function had been to cut out a pace for Aidan O’Brien’s big two hopes, Jan Vermeer and Midas Touch.

While that pair could only slog on for fourth and fifth, it was Séamus Heffernan who briefly looked to have stolen the race around Tattenham Corner. As it was only Workforce who was able to overhaul him.

Back in third was Rewilding who patently failed to act down the hill while Bullet Train, carrying Juddmonte Farm’s first colours instead of Workforce, was so at sea around the unique Epsom challenge that he faded to last.

There is also the suspicion that the winner’s performance resonated so much because it was so unexpected.

Even a legendary Derby trainer like Stoute seemed to be happily surprised with the nature of Workforce’s dominance. And considering Workforce’s Dante conqueror, Cape Blanco, didn’t even line up, there is likely to be a painful post-mortem at Ballydoyle where the reverberations of St Nicholas Abbey’s absence must now sting even more.

Jan Vermeer was gambled on to successfully take his place but jockey Johnny Murtagh reported: “I was upsides Ryan (Moore) but when he quickened up I couldn’t go with him. I was never really confident at any stage and he never gave me a feel.”

O’Brien later revealed that Jan Vermeer had lost both front shoes in the race and said: “You’ve got to be pleased with that. They were all there. The winner looked exceptional.”

Certainly exceptional enough for some bookmakers yesterday to cut him to 4 to 1 favourite for October’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, one of the few major European prizes to have eluded 64-year-old Stoute in his glittering career.

The Barbadian-born 10 times champion trainer has come close in the past at Longchamp with the likes of Pilsudski, who was runner-up to Peintre Celebre in 1997, but it is not unreasonable to assume there is even more to come from his latest three-year-old superstar.

And Stoute seemed especially pleased for Moore on Saturday, the 26-year-old triple-champion jockey who broke his Classic duck just the day before on Snow Fairy, and for whom 24 hours at Epsom has catapulted him onto another level again in international status.

It’s almost quarter of a century since Stoute won the last of his three Irish Derbys with Shahrastani but Workforce now looks set to try and complete the Epsom-Curragh double later this month.

Lord Grimthorpe, Juddmonte’s racing manager, said yesterday: “It really was a remarkable performance for a horse so inexperienced and for him to break the course record is something else. The Irish Derby would look the obvious next race but we will see how the horse has taken Saturday and then sit down and make a plan for the rest of the season.”

With St Nicholas Abbey on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, and sceptics already pondering whether his reputation can stand another defeat, the way looks clear for Workforce to attempt to become the 16th horse to complete the Classic double at the Curragh in 20 days time.

Another barnstorming performance there and posing question marks might start to look a very churlish exercise.