HOT ROD!

O'Brien bags 9th Epsom crown as Auguste scorches home

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A DERBY run amid the most alien of circumstances all-too-familiar produced an outcome as Auguste Rodin proved, after all, to be the thinking punter's horse.

A lunch-hour off-time, an attendance hit by train strikes and the express threat of disruption from pressure group Animal Rising rendered the Betfred-sponsored colts' Classic like no other of modern times.

But, once the mile-and-a-half test was done, Aidan O'Brien mounted the winner's podium at Epsom with jockey Ryan Moore, having extended his own record of Derby triumphs to nine.

As the 14 runners made their way through the first four furlongs it was the action in the home straight that drew grasps from the crowd as an activist clambered over the fence by the far rail and ran on to the track.

But he was securely in police custody (right) by the time Kevin Stott, taking his first mount in the race, dashed 66-1 outsider King Of Steel at the two-furlong pole.