By Richard Griffiths

Vodafone Derby, 1550 BST, 8 June
Live on BBC TV and Five Live.

Mark Johnston says he cannot remember ever feeling under such pressure before a race as he has leading up to this year's Derby.

Yet he knows that pressure could have been a lot, lot worse.

Johnston, who oversees a large but value-for-money string of 100-plus horses in Middleham, North Yorkshire, is usually the most stoic of men, an unusual trait in his profession. But the Derby has left him worried.

His two contenders Bandari and Fight Your Corner will be the strongest home challenge to Irish wizard Aidan O'Brien as he bids to win the race for the second year running with Hawk Wing and High Chaparral.

Johnston boasts two good Derby chances

Johnston readily admits the week leading up to the race will be "a nightmare" as he gets up each morning just hoping that neither of his colts has met with a setback.

The trainer steps into each of their boxes and runs his experienced hands down their legs hoping he feels no heat - a tell-tale sign of injury.

As he does so, Johnston can only thank his lucky stars that both Bandari and Fight Your Corner have been bought privately in the build up to the Derby.

Bandari, a runaway winner of Lingfield's Classic Trial over a course similar to Epsom and a distance identical to the Derby, will run in the colours of Hamdan al-Maktoum.

Fight Your Corner will also run for the Maktoum family, having been purchased for his brother Sheikh Mohammed's son, also called Sheikh Hamdan.

Neither horse was even entered for the Derby until they were supplemented on Saturday at a cost of �90,000.

And therein lies the rub. Because Bandari, at 44,000 guineas, and Fight Your Corner, at 14,500 guineas, were extremely cheap buys for horses of their subsequent quality, Johnston balked at entering them for the race as yearlings.

He balked at entering them again for an initial supplementary fee of �9,000 in April.

And until the Maktoums intervened, he was balking at advising their owners to splash out the �90,000 to run at Epsom.

"My dream of winning the Derby has changed," said Johnston, who has been an outspoken critic of the Derby entry system and believes it is no longer the principal target of a three-year-old's season.

There is no doubt the desire of the Maktoums to have serious contenders at Epsom has saved Johnston and the owners of Bandari and Fight Your Corner from some tough, tough decisions.

Now that they are running, Johnston is struggling to split his two hopes.

Bandari would appear to have the most impressive form - very few horses win their Classic trial by as much as 13 lengths.