GOING’S GOOD AT EPSOM

THE two-day Derby meeting starts on good ground — with the possibility of a thunderstorm later today.

Epsom’s clerk of the course Andrew Cooper reported yesterday: “It is good now — the next step would be to call it good, good to firm in places, and that’s where we’re likely to get to next.

“It’s a warm, muggy day tomorrow, with temperatures due to get up to 26C, but there is this risk of a thunderstorm.

“We’ll have to see if it materialises.”

KEVIN RYAN has been forced to put his North Yorkshire stable into lockdown after one of his horses tested positive for equine herpes.

Bryan Smart and Michael Herrington, whose yards are in close proximity to Ryan’s base in Hambleton, near Thirsk, have also been quarantined as a precaution.

“The disease can be extremely serious for the affected horses,” said David Sykes, the BHA’s director of equine health and welfare.