On 23 April Septimus began his second season with a trip to France for the Prix La Force over 2000 metres at Longchamp Racecourse in which he was well-fancied, but never looked likely to win and finished seventh of the nine runners behind Barastraight. On his next appearance he contested the Dante Stakes (a major trial race for The Derby) over ten and a half furlongs at York Racecourse on 18 May. Racing on soft ground and partnered by Kieren Fallon he started 13/8 favourite ahead of Palace Episode and four other colts. After tracking the leaders he went to the front a quarter of a mile from thefinish and drew right away from his opponents to win by eight lengths from the Michael Stoute-trained Best Alibi. Fallon commented "I'm happy he's got this race under his belt and he deserves it. This horse is very fluent so we could take him anywhere... the way he went away from them there with his ears pricked, you'd have to be impressed".
