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I agree with Ralph Beckett that The Derby should be moved to a Friday. There is more than enough anecdotal evidence that “nobody seems to work in this country on a Friday”. From first hand experience the M25 is a lot quieter nowadays on Friday’s than any other week day at rush hour. Also it wouldn’t have to fight for media interest and the weekend follows.
As for the racing at Epsom it almost became farcical. The obvious track bias on the Friday and then watching the world’s highest rated horse finishing like a 4 mile chaser at Hexham in heavy ground. It was a pretty poor watch.
Looking at the attendance, 22,557 for the Derby was the highest since 2022 and the two-day total of 48,261 was 28% up on last year.
Are those figures correct, as they imply 25,674 attended on Friday, more than on Derby Day. If so, it must surely be the first time that’s happened.
ATR reporting 28,500 on the Saturday and the same overall total, so nearly 20,000 on Oaks Day
I watched the racing on ITV on Friday and there seemed to be very few people around the paddock when the horses were in there. If they had nearly 20,000 there, half of them must have been playing hide and seek.
My main question is: Why do we need a two day meeting at Epsom?
Looking at the US cards on Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes Day, they’re quite decent. You have at least another 4-5 G1s and a few G2s as well. At Epsom you have the Derby, the Oaks and the Coronation Cup with the remaining races being equivalent to a better Saturday at Haydock or York.
I don’t get the point of a two day meeting. You could argue that three races over 1m4f might not do the track any favours, but with the Derby the 5th race on the card on Day two, the ground was already in pretty bad shape.
AP..it’s amazing how many attend these big meetings that have no interest in the horses.
Even at Cheltenham these days the steppings can be half empty when the winners come back inRuby – I grew up with the Derby meeting (none of this “festival” nonsense) being over four days, Wednesday to Saturday. If you think the quality of the racing is diluted now…
Ruby – I grew up with the Derby meeting (none of this “festival” nonsense) being over four days, Wednesday to Saturday.
Then you also remember back in the 1990s (might have been over three days already) when you had the Coronation Cup on a Wednesday and then just Class D races for the remainder of the card. I wasn’t much of an experienced racing fan in those days and thought the cards were already quite boring.
If you want to attract more newcomers to the game, you need to make the racing interesting and you need a bit of luck with the weather.As runandskip has said above, and others too, a lot of the people in attendance don’t know one end of a horse from the other.
All racecourses – not just Epsom – just want bums on seats or, to be more accurate, footfall at the bars. The racing is of secondary importance to all but the purists.
Yes, I guess that very few of the over 20,000 in Saturday realized who Calandagan really is. And this applies to other equine athletes, too….
It was telling the queue of people leaving because of the weather.
The more I know the less I understand.
If memory serves, when Epsom was a four day meeting, the feature race on the Friday was the Northern Dancer Handicap. That day dragged a bit.
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!
Watch even the Reference Point derby of 87 , the place is heaving , it’s lost its place , Royal Ascot is the meeting now , the Derby hmmm in NH terms the King George
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
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