Prestige and 200 years of history continue to make Epsom Derby a special race

EPSOM, ENGLAND // There is a giant advertising hoarding by the finishing post here at Epsom racecourse that proclaims Saturday afternoon’s Derby is the “Greatest Flat Race in the World”.

This is the same piece of wood that Frederico Tesio considered so important last century.

The famous Italian breeder is quoted as saying: “The thoroughbred exists not because its selection has depended on experts, technicians or zoologists but one piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby.”

Perhaps it is time for a revision. Last year the world rankings told a different story. The Derby came 30th in the world rankings of best horse races and was not even the highest-rated race over 2,400 metres for three-year-old colts. That accolade fell to the Tokyo Yushun Japanese Derby, a race that has risen in quality over the past 12 years.

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The Derby is worth £1.625 million (Dh7.67m) this year, but the Japanese equivalent is worth almost double.

Jockey Olivier Peslier has ridden all over the world, but crucially has won the Derby aboard High Rise in 1998 and has vast experience of riding in Japan.

Peslier can see why Japan’s Derby has eclipsed Epsom’s in many ways.

“Japanese horses are very impressive,” he said. “They are strong and they race everywhere. This comes from the fact that 30 years ago they bought some really good stallions such as Sunday Silence from America and some good mares. They have ended up with sires like Deep Impact, who is basically their version of Galileo.”

The dominance of Coolmore’s dual Derby-winning sire Galileo is remarkable. The 2001 winner has been European champion sire for the past seven years and has produced three Derby winners.

Sea The Stars, his half-brother, was not only a brilliant winner himself in 2009 but also produced Harzand, last year’s winner, with his first crop.

Galileo has fathered Saturdays’s favourite in Cliffs Of Moher as well as stablemate Capri, Douglas Macarthur and The Anvil. Frankel, his most brilliant son, is responsible for Eminent — the Craven winner and English 2000 Guineas sixth — and Cracksman. All the limelight on the brilliance of Galileo leaves the achievements of Japanese super sire Deep Impact in the shade.

Deep Impact won the 2005 Japanese Derby and since he was sent to the breeding sheds he has already sired three winners of Japan’s big race.

He had four representatives last week, when scores of Japanese race fans were pictured camping outside the night beforehand. In total there were 123,779 at Tokyo Racecourse last week. Last year at Epsom there were 32,939 in the grandstands.

On the inner field there could be up to 50,000 to 70,000 in years gone by, but that would be a generous estimate 12 months ago.

However, there are two things that are unique to Epsom that mark a gap that can never be bridged — the unique configuration of the racecourse and the prestige that comes with over 200 years of history.

This afternoon the 19 runners will have to ascend 41 metres during the first 1,000 metres of the race. They then switch back along the classic horseshoe configuration and then have to tackle Tattenham Corner and its infamous camber. Quite simply, in world racing there is nothing like it.

“The culture in Japan is different,” Peslier said. “When I won the Arima Kinen for the second time on Symboli Kris S, I think there were 186,000 people there. Around 2,000 fans had camped outside the racecourse overnight. The Japanese are crazy about their racing. In Europe it is different.

“The English Derby is the oldest, and the original, and therefore has the prestige and everybody wants to win it.

“I remember when I won the Prix du Jockey Club for Daniel Wildenstein on Peintre Celebre in 1997, he said he had been trying to win it for 80 years. He was fantastically rich, had a lot of horses but he couldn’t win it.”

Peslier added this example as well.

“If you want to buy a boat for €10m, any rich man can have the best boat,” he explained.

“In horse racing in Europe you can have the most money, you can buy the best horse, but still finish second. That’s the Derby.”

So still the greatest Classic race then. Just.

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