By John Henwood
THERE are Derbys and there’s the Derby. Among the bigger events to borrow the name is the Kentucky Derby, but our American cousins pronounce it “Durby” and give it the additional soubriquet of The Run for the Roses due to the habit of placing a huge rose garland on the winner.
There is another American Derby run in Illinois and others in Australia, India, Denmark and Germany, to name a few. Jersey has a Derby too and the 2025 renewal will be run next month at Les Landes. Candidly, they are all pretenders.
For the purist there is only one Derby, The Blue Riband of the turf, and it owes its name to the 12th Lord Derby who, so the story goes, tossed a coin with Sir Charles Bunbury to decide whose name the race should bear. That was in 1779 and the inaugural event took place on Epsom Downs the following year.
The Derby was once, and for a very long time, acknowledged as the greatest horserace in the world, but sadly, like so many British institutions, it has been overshadowed by pretenders. For example, on the first Tuesday every November the Melbourne Cup is run. They call it, with complete justification, “the race that stops a nation”. Throughout Australia work stops and all around that vast country, those who cannot be there are either having street parties or glued to their television.
The Derby has never been able to make such a claim, but there was a time when it was infinitely more popular than it is today. If it did not bring Britain to a halt, it did, for many years, briefly stop the democratic process.
In the Victorian era, parliament closed for the day in recognition of the importance of the occasion. It became a custom, exemplified by Sir Herbert Maxwell MP who, on Tuesday 2 May 1883, proposed, “That the House, at its rising, do adjourn till Thursday”. The proposition was carried nem con and each year, a similar proposal was successful.
Before the First World War, an estimated crowd of half a million filled Epsom Downs. Always on a Wednesday, the Derby remained hugely important in the years after the Second World War. A similar number were on Epsom Downs in 1946 to see the grey Airborne, a 50/1 outsider, win by a length. Seven years later, Sir Gordon Richards, recently knighted in Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation honours, rode Pinza to win. It was his only Derby success after 27 attempts and it was at the main expense of the Queen’s colt Aureole.
Sadly, in the second half of the 20th century, the event began to decline and the authorities were slow to respond, but in 1984 the race was sponsored for the first time, by Ever Ready, which increased the marketing spend, and in 1995 they moved the race to Saturday in the hope of reviving attendance. It did not improve when the British Horseracing Board took over the administration of racing early this century. The official attendance in the latest renewal this month was just 22,312, around the same as that for an average Stoke City football match.
By contrast, 91,000 were at last November’s Melbourne Cup, and 147,000 were at Churchill Downs in Kentucky for their Derby in May this year.
It is sad that world’s greatest race has been allowed to decline in such a way, but how important is it?
Frederico Tesio, breeder of, among others, the mighty and unbeaten Ribot, summed it up: “The thoroughbred exists because its selection depends, not on experts, technicians or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby.”
This year Lambourn, a bay colt sired by 2014 Derby winner Australia, who in turn was sired by 2001 winner Galileo, and the product of around 300 previous years of breeding, dominated the great race from start to finish. It does not matter that it was not, perhaps, a vintage renewal of the race; Lambourn beat the best three-year-olds Britain, France and Ireland could muster and did so with complete authority.
A report on this year’s renewal must begin with the hors d’oeuvre. The Oaks, older than the Derby by a year, is the female version and run the day before. This year’s race was a thriller with Minnie Hauk narrowly prevailing over her stable companion Whirl. Then there is the Coronation Cup, initiated in 1902 to mark the coronation of Edward VII; it is the version of the race for older horses, won this time by Jan Breughel in a titanic battle with the French horse Calandagan. The world’s best jockey, Ryan Moore, was the successful rider in both cases. In the immediate aftermath of Moore’s first classic victory in the Oaks on Snow Fairy 15 years ago, he was asked how he felt: “It’s great, but it’s not the Derby is it?” That’s how important it is.
This year, the Betfred Derby was worth £909,628.40 to Lambourn’s winning connections (I don’t suppose they will worry too much about the odd 40p) around eight percent of which goes to jockey Wayne Lordan, number two to Ryan Moore in the Aidan O’Brien/Coolmore pecking order. He showed admirable judgment of pace and never looked in danger of defeat. It was his first Derby victory and I have no doubt the moment he passed that “piece of wood: the winning post at the Epsom Derby” will be with him forever.
To be at Epsom on Derby day is always one of those “I-was-there” great sporting occasions and one hopes it will be with us for ever. The British Horseracing Authority and the Jockey Club, owners of Epsom racecourse, must take steps to return it to its former stature and importance as the world’s greatest race. Maybe a trip to Melbourne to learn how the Aussies do it would be a good place to start.
Born and educated in Jersey, John Henwood MBE had a career in broadcasting before tackling a range of other challenges. In 2016 he was honoured to become the second recipient of the Institute of Directors Lifetime Achievement Award, the only other being the late Colin Powell CBE.
