To the delight of his innumerable followers, Henry Cecil is revisiting sensations he must have consigned to life's history. Cecil is to marry again next month, he is once more training 100-plus horses and he has started the season in the prolific fashion of a decade and more ago.

Moreover, Cecil is preparing a Derby favourite in defiance of mounting evidence that the pick of this classic generation are trained outside Britain. Twice Over will head to York on Thursday with his dominance of the Epsom market untouched by a muddling weekend.

With the defection of Curtain Call through ground concerns, Lingfield's big race on a languorous Saturday proved inconclusive. More striking events occurred at Leopardstown yesterday but Casual Conquest's blitzing victory in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial was compromised, as he is not even entered at Epsom.

At Longchamp, meanwhile, the French kept both their 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas in home hands, following the Newmarket versions of a week earlier that had gone, respectively, to France and Ireland.

Cecil has been around long enough to be immune to the annual hyperbole of these expectant weeks but even he may be feeling a weight of responsibility. The master of Warren Place has not even fielded a Derby runner in eight years of generally low fortunes. Now, he has a short-priced favourite.

That position would have been challenged had Curtain Call taken another successful bow at Lingfield but Luca Cumani decided the risk was not justified. Instead, he confined his colt to routine work in Newmarket under his regular jockey, Jamie Spencer.

This was a crushing setback to Lingfield's biggest raceday but course officials believed nothing more could have been done to preserve their big draw. Neil Mackenzie-Ross, the clerk of the course, defended his decision not to water until Friday evening, saying: “Ten days ago, we had an inch of rain here and there was still a lot of moisture in the ground.”

Spencer, having won the opener on Red Rocks, said he was relieved that Curtain Call had been withdrawn. “I'm glad we didn't bring him,” he said. “That ground is quick, especially down the hill, and I just feel he might have got in trouble by giving everything.

“I'm sure Luca will have another plan. He's got plenty of good horses to work him with and I won't be worried if he goes to Epsom without another run.” As he is not entered against Twice Over in the Dante Stakes, and as Goodwood's traditional Derby trial no longer exists, Cumani has virtually no option as he seeks his third Derby win - 20 years after his first and ten years after his second.

Dermot Weld's training accomplishments around the world are at least the match of Cumani's but he has never so much as had a placed horse in the Derby. His frustration at the lack of an entry for Casual Conquest, then, cannot be overstated after this son of Hernando had sprinted past his four rivals at Leopardstown, including the odds-on Washington Irving.

Weld and his enduring patrons, Moyglare Stud, still have the option of supplementing at the five-day stage but the trainer's initial reaction was that the cost of £75,000 was prohibitive. “It's a great pity that the entry fee is too high,” he said. “We'll speak to Moyglare Stud about it but the French Derby is more likely.”

With the eclipse of Washington Irving, and an unplaced run at Longchamp for Georgebernardshaw, Aidan O'Brien's weekend consolation came in the Lingfield Derby Trial victory of Alessandro Volta, now quoted variously between 10-1 and 20-1 for Epsom.

As O'Brien still has no fewer than 26 colts engaged in the Derby - at least until the penultimate forfeit stage next Friday, he may yet have sharper shots to fire. The options for Godolphin, by contrast, are running thin, with Campanologist patently failing to stay at Lingfield.

Though still without a domestic winner, Godolphin spirits will have been lifted over the weekend, specifically by Rio De La Plata's second place behind the emphatic winner of the French 2,000 Guineas, Falco.

Badly drawn, and ridden with necessary restraint by Frankie Dettori, Rio De La Plata stayed on well enough to make a Derby run feasible - as did third-placed River Proud.

All the colts, however, played support roles to Zarkava, the darling diva of Longchamp, who kept her unbeaten record with the minimum of fuss in the 1,000 Guineas. She will not come to Epsom but stay at home for the French Oaks the same weekend.