EPSOM DERBY

TODAY marks the 244th annual running of the Epsom Derby – so here is some trivia on the prestigious horse race...

● THE Derby is named after the Earl of Derby, who won a coin toss — it could have been called the Bunbury. Charles Bunbury was the loser.

● This year’s race begins at 1.30pm and will be on during ITV’s FA Cup Final coverage.

● The first Derby was in May 1780 but it was not until 41 years later that a grey horse

– Gustavus – won the race.

● Gladiateur was the first foreign horse to win the Derby. He was

French and won in

1865.

● Kisber came back as a ghost, so the story goes. He died in 1895 at a castle in Germany and was reported being ridden by a jockey in crimson, emerald and white (his racing colours) running at full speed around the castle – supposedly re-winning the Derby. ● Voluptuary competed in the Derby in 1881 and three years later won the Grand National – the only horse to do so. ● Harry Ormesher bred the 2006 Derby winner Sir Percy. In a previous life, Harry O had been a photographer of Page 3 girls.

● An electronic starting gate was used for the first time at the Derby in 1967. In that race the outsider El Mighty began at 250/1 but his odds dropped down to 25/1 after the owner of a shop in Peterborough claimed he had witnessed in a dream the horse claiming victory.

● Lester Piggott (below) – the housewives’ favourite – won the Derby nine times. His first victory came in 1954 when he was 18 on Never Say Die, a 33/1 outsider. ● Actor Robert Morley had it written into his film contracts he always got Derby Day off.

● The largest Derby field was 34 in 1862, and the smallest was just four in 1794. There is now a safety limit of 20.

● King Edward

VII is the only monarch to have owned a Derby winner. Queen Elizabeth’s horses won every major race apart from the Derby.

● No horse whose name begins with U, X or Z has ever won the Derby.