It should be an image that is seared into Andre Fabre's memory, an indelible imprint of an unforgettable achievement.

It was the moment when 30 years of his glittering training career was distilled into two-and-a-half minutes as Pour Moi won the 2011 Investec Derby at Epsom.

A younger Fabre had watched Al Nasr finish 17th in the imperious wake of Shergar in 1981 and that proved to be an unhappy portent of things to come. In 1995, Pennekamp was expected to win, the colt having already won the 2000 Guineas, but the favourite for the Derby never handled the course and finished 11th, lame and having run his last race.

A further eight attempts had yielded no better than a fifth place for Visindar seven years ago until the 24-times champion trainer of France finally found his Derby champion.

It was an afternoon that proved worthy of that long wait. Pour Moi came from last to first when jockey Mickael Barzalona unleashed the colt's withering speed, cutting down the field in the shadow of the winning post with such élan that Barzalona indulged in a theatrical whip-waving celebration before he had crossed the line.

For many, such an occasion would be one to relive and treasure, but Fabre is happy to let this day of days pass him by along with all the other "good souvenirs", such as his record seven victories in the Prix de l'Arc Triomphe, and when he became the first European trainer to win the Breeders' Cup Classic with Arcangues in 1993.

"I never watch the replays. I don't care at all – I just keep going," he said. "I do it for pleasure – and winning. It was very exciting but, when you train horses, you have so many worries so the big moments are just a few seconds."

If that comment was revealing about this thoughtful man's mindset, Fabre himself felt he had gleaned little when his runner for this year's race, Ocovango, worked at Epsom last week. This was a learning curve for a colt who will be having just the fourth race of his life when he tackles the curves, cambers and gradients of Epsom in what is regarded by jockeys to be the roughest and most brutal race of the year.

Ocovango, like Pour Moi, comes to the Derby having won the Group Two Prix Greffulhe at Saint-Cloud this month and, as with Barzalona, Fabre will again be relying on a man who has yet to ride a race on the course that has baffled many famous foreign jockeys down the decades.

Pierre-Charles Boudot was taking it steady on Ocovango on his way to the start of his gallop and came down Tattenham Hill at little more than half the speed required to put him in contention come Saturday, but Fabre was happy that the exercise helped put both man and horse closer to where he wanted them.

"I haven't learned much, because it was not a serious workout just a rehearsal, but it was more for the horse and the jockey," Fabre said. "I think it was useful because the horse was looking pretty green going to the start. For him, everything is new and, mentally, it's very important because horses learn a lot from what they see and feel. They can seem not to care but they do care a lot.

"Pierre-Charles knows the horse – and it's very important to have good relations between the horse and the jockey – and the jockey works hard in the yard for me so deserves to have his chance."

It is not by chance that for over 200 years the Derby has been the crucible in which the best of Europe's colts have been tested. The leading contenders have already proven their class, but the imponderable for many, including ante-post favourite Dawn Approach, is stamina; the DNA-imbued glue that will hold that class together for 12 furlongs. On that score, Fabre admits he does not have quite the confidence he did with Pour Moi.

"Ocovango is a perfectly-made horse with very good balance and cruising speed – I'm not worried about that. But now it's getting more and more difficult to find horses with the necessary stamina," he said. "With Pour Moi I was really confident. I was feeling like Jove with the fire in the fists."

Perhaps, but the competitive fire that so clearly burns within Fabre means he is not coming over with a horse whom he does not believe can punch his weight.

A replay of Pour Moi would do just fine.