FORGET Rocky. If Libertarian can win the Derby tomorrow for Elaine and Karl Burke, it will be the comeback to end them all.

The path to Epsom has been rocky to say the least for the mainstays of Leyburn’s Spigot Lodge yard.

Three years ago, they were on the crest of a wave – with stable star Lord Shanakill having just won a Group 1 race in France – only for their dreams to come crashing down around them.

Karl was banned by the British Horseracing Authority for 12 months, for allegedly passing information to a former owner, and a yard that had 100 horses in training and employed 30 staff was shut down.

Huge upheaval followed. The ban meant he wasn’t even allowed to live at home.

And, when his suspension was over, the Burkes’ flock had dwindled to just 35. But all that makes what has happened next all the more remarkable.

With Burke’s wife Elaine taking over the training licence, ‘Team Burke’ – as the reformed outfit was always destined to be known – trained 38 Flat winners from just 35 horses. Last year brought 43 successes.

Now, with 15 already in the books in 2013, they once again have a runner on which to hang their hopes.

Hope that never left.

“It has been tough but that is all behind us now, whatever happened, and we can only drive on forward,” said Karl.

So after scorching to victory in the Dante Stakes at York Racecourse as a 33-1 outsider, there is no fear ahead of the Derby, where Libertarian will come up against the might of Dawn Approach, the even money favourite.

“You take on the best but that’s what the Derby is,” said Elaine.

“There will be some very good horses at the Derby but you have to give it a go, don’t you? You have just got to be hopeful, but hope gets you a long way.”

The two turf titans share something in common – the same father.

Both Dawn Approach and Libertarian are by New Approach, the European champion at both two and three-years-old, who won five Group 1 races for Jim Bolger.

While Bolger trains his exciting son, who has won all of his seven races, Elaine said Libertarian came as something of a bargain buy.

And, while his half-brother’s talents have been on show for all to see since his debut at the Curragh in March 2012, the charge of the Burke family has been something of a slow burner.

“He is just a baby and I don’t think we have seen the best of him yet,” added Elaine. “We bought him at the breeze ups at Newmarket last year.

“He was just a lovely looking horse. I thought he was a bit weak at the time but we thought at £40,000 for a New Approach colt it seemed a good price.”

“He has got speed,” said Karl. “My form man said to me at Pontefract that the last two furlongs he did there that day was the quickest of the meeting – and that included the 90-rated sprinters – so once he gets into gear he is not slow.”

Speed is one thing. Handling the demands of the Derby is another matter entirely.

First there are the crowds – as many as 100,000 of them – making the build-up and the race a spectacle that is as far removed from anything the colts participating will have seen in their young lives.

Even for a horse that has won in front of 15,000 at York.

Then there is the famous Surrey Downs track – a curving, winding, undulating circuit that throws even the best horses off balance and demands a near perfect run.

“I don’t think he will mind the crowds or anything like that – or the parade – that’s not a problem,” said Karl.

“He has a great temperament. The way the race runs, with the quick pace early, he is going to need to be on his mettle.

“But one thing is guaranteed. You need to stay there and he will stay.”