Even in its heyday when the Derby was on the Wednesday the vast majority of those in attendance (in the centre field where the funfair and other attractions were) wouldn’t have had much clue as to the horses running in the races.
At the end of the day, considering how utterly miserable the weather was getting almost 30k in on Derby Day is no mean achievement but being given a pass due to the weather, it will be almost like a clean slate next year but hopefully they will take lessons from the two days and implement then to refine the days. The centre field is what they need to work on (obviously weather dependant) because when the cameras pans over to it (even on Oaks days when the weather was better) there was still more green grass on view than people.
I attended Shergar’s Derby as a young kid and that infield was utterly rammed to the extent that it was difficult to move around freely and get any kind of view to the point where you could just about see the tops of the jockey’s caps as they went by – most were not overly interested in the races but the funfair was doing gangbusters along with the numerous ice cream and refreshment vans!