In May however, he was moved up in distance and earned his place in the Derby field by winning the Wills Gold Flake Stakes over one and a half miles at Leopardstown.

[4] Larkspur's Australian jockey Neville Sellwood could not offer an explanation for the incident but said that "the horses fell right in front of me...I had a narrow escape".

Larkspur took the lead two furlongs out and stayed on strongly in the closing stages to win by two lengths from the French-trained colts Arcor and Le Cantilien.

[5] He returned to the Curragh in autumn and started odds-on favourite for the Blandford Stakes, but was narrowly beaten by Sicilian Prince.

[2] In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Larkspur a "poor" Derby winner.