There is no other day in the racing calendar like Derby Day, and the crowds flock to the Epsom racecourse to watch a fine spectacle of flat racing at its very best each year.
The race itself has been around for a great many years, however the savviest of punters and race goers are fully aware that to secure the best odds they are best advised to hunt around online on the ante post betting markets long before the day of the race.
Favourites do often have a good track record of winning this race which is often to years old colts and fillies and it run over one mile four furlongs and six yards and it is held in June each year.
If you are a fan of horse racing and fancy visiting the course when the Derby Stakes is being run then you should book your tickets well in advance, and if you are planning on staying nearby for the race meeting then you should also book your hotel rooms well in advance too, as they tend to fill up very quickly and getting a room as the day of the race approaches will be impossible to do.
Past Winners of the Derby Stakes
As you would expect there has been some very well known horses, jockeys and trainers and owners that have had success in the Derby Stakes, in 2014 for example it was Australia ridden by Joseph O’Brien and trained by his dad Aidan O’Brien that won this race and in 2015 Golden Horn won this race by an impressive 3 and a half lengths.
2016 was Harzand ridden by Pat Smullen winning with a recorded time of 2:40.09, and then in 2017 it was Wings of Eagles ridden by Padraig Beggy that came out on top and won, and then in 2018 it was Masar ridden by William Buick that won.
The Derby Stakes Facts and Figures
It may surprise you to learn that one jockey has actually won the Derby a total of nine times in his career, and that jockey was of course the legend that was Lester Piggot.
Quite a number of trainers have had some very good luck in this race with horses they have trained and sent to Epsom to take their chances in the Derby Stakes, and with seven wins each in total those trainers were Robert Robson, John Ports and then more recently in the early to mid 1900’s Fred Darling.
The fastest winning time ever recorded by a horse winning the Epsom Derby was recorded by a horse called Workforce who won this race back in 2010.
One horse did manage to beat its rivals by a huge 10 lengths and that horse was Shergar who won the race back in 1981, and not long after was kidnapped, never to be seen again!
Over the years there have been three horses that have won this race at huge odds of 100/1 and as for the horse that won with the shortest odds, that was Ladas who won many years ago back in 1894 at odds of just 2/9!
