Dubai: Derby hopeful Muntazah was badly held up for clear running in the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York and was forced to settle for fourth place behind Wings Of Desire in a hot renewal of the last major trial for Britain’s premier Classic.

Trained by first-season handler Owen Burrows for Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, Muntazah found himself behind a busy wall of horses with three furlongs to run.

Having aborted his search for the gap that never came, jockey Paul Hanagan made a last-ditch attempt when he switched his charge to the inside rail but it was a case of too little, too late as Frankie Dettori had by then conjured up a devastating run from Wings Of Desire to deny Ryan Moore and Deauville in a rattling finish.

However, Muntazah’s handler, Owen Burrows, can take some consolation from the fact that he already has a legitimate Derby contender in 2,000 Guineas runner-up Massaat, who is also owned by Shaikh Hamdan.

Wings Of Desire, who only made his racecourse debut 30 days ago, has sensationally stormed into joint-favourites for the Epsom Classic on June 4. John Gosden, who has trained two Derby winners including Golden Horn 12 months ago and Benny the Dip in 1997, was delighted with the phenomenal progress his colt has made in such a short span.

“This horse never did a half-speed piece of work until the middle of March, so consequently he’s still learning a lot,” he told Racing UK.

“[But] he’s freakish. He showed me things early on, I thought ‘goodness’. He’s so laid-back. His two favourite things are sleeping and eating.

“For a horse like this to come from no education in a sense as a two-year-old and to come and win a Dante is pretty special.”

In total, ten winners of the Dante have gone on to achieve victory in the Derby. The first being St Paddy in 1960 and the most recent was Golden Horn in 2015.

Dettori was full of praise for his mount and said: “He can only improve, it was only his third day at school, and we know there’s plenty more to come, so we will roll the dice (supplement for Epsom) and give it a go.”

Earlier, Godolphin’s Beautiful Romance stayed on well under James Doyle to win the Group 2 Middleton Stakes.

The winner is trained by Godolphin’s Emirati handler Saeed Bin Surour.