Hotels for Epsom Derby 2027

The Derby is the race that built the modern thoroughbred industry, run over a mile and a half of undulating turf that tests stamina and nerve in equal measure. Crowds arrive early and stake out spots on the Hill or in the enclosures, with picnics, hats and a fair amount of tweed on display. It's as much a social fixture as a sporting one, drawing everyone from lifelong racegoers to those who turn up once a year for exactly this.

The Derby was first run in 1780, growing out of a celebration the year before that marked the first running of the Oaks Stakes at Epsom. A new race for three-year-olds was planned, and by tradition its name was settled by the toss of a coin between two of the party's hosts, the 12th Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury — a charming story, though historians note it may be no more than legend, and that Bunbury, as Steward of the Jockey Club, most likely deferred to his host regardless.

Bunbury had the last word in a different way: Diomed, the colt he owned, won that first Derby. The name has since been borrowed by dozens of other races around the world, from the Kentucky Derby onwards, but Epsom's race, over a mile and a half of demanding downland turf, remains the original.