Epsom: Course guide and key statistics for the Derby Festival

By Timeform

09:56 · WED June 01, 2022

Timeform's in-depth guide to Epsom, featuring all the key facts and figures for the 2022 Derby Festival.

Timeform’s Epsom course guide

Left handed, undulating, 'U' shaped course, with tight bends. Races up to eight and a half furlongs are very sharp, meaning those ridden prominently hold an advantage, particularly on the five-furlong course, the fastest in the world, which is virtually downhill throughout. Conversely, the first four furlongs of the Derby course are uphill and it provides a real test of stamina, anything over-racing in the early part of the race usually found wanting in the closing stages. In testing conditions, the runners tend to switch towards the stands-side rail for the better ground.

Leading active jockeys at Epsom

Sorted by strike rate since the beginning of 2017 (minimum 20 rides)

Charles Bishop 29.03% (9-31)
William Buick 22.81% (13-57)
Silvestre de Sousa 21.78% (22-101)
Frankie Dettori 21.62% (8-37)
Cieren Fallon 20.69% (6-29)

Other points to consider

Apart from Silvestre de Sousa, who has had a lot more rides at Epsom than any other jockey in the last five years, and William Buick, the only other jockey to have reached double figures at the track in that time is Andrea Atzeni with 10 winners (from 60 rides), including the 2019 Coronation Cup on Defoe. He won the same race on Postponed three years earlier.
Buick, successful in the Derby on Masar in 2018, has been the most profitable jockey to follow at Epsom, with his rides returning a profit at SP of 21.28. Despite his large number of rides, De Sousa is also among the jockeys whose Epsom rides have returned a level-stakes profit (11.30).

Leading active trainers at Epsom

Sorted by strike rate since the beginning of 2017 (minimum 20 runners)

Charlie Appleby 36.67% (11-30)
Hughie Morrison 27.27% (9-33)
Eve Johnson Houghton 23.81% (10-42)
Roger Varian 22.86% (8-35)
John (& Thady) Gosden 18.37% (9-49)

Other points to consider

It may come as a surprise that Mark Johnston is Epsom’s most successful trainer numerically (17 winners) though he has sent plenty of runners (110) down from his Middleham base in North Yorkshire. Jim Boyle, in contrast, trains a stone’s throw from the course and has sent out 14 winners from 98 winners, slightly more than Andrew Balding with 13 winners from 89 runners.
Charlie Appleby and Aidan O’Brien, who have sent out the last five Derby winners between them, have been the most profitable trainers to follow at Epsom in that time with level-stakes profit of 40.91 and 40.35 respectively. However, Appleby won last year’s Derby with the stable’s apparent third string Adayar (16/1), the same price as his 2018 winner Masar, while O’Brien has pulled off Derby shocks lately himself with Wings of Eagles (40/1 in 2017) and Serpentine (25/1 in 2020) both beating better-fancied stablemates.

Best performances at the Epsom Derby Festival

Sorted by Timeform performance ratings since 2017

Adayar (130) – 2021 Derby WON
Enable (125) – 2017 Oaks WON
Masar (125) – 2018 Derby WON
Kew Gardens (124) – 2019 Coronation Cup 2nd
Anthony Van Dyck (123) – 2019 Derby WON
Defoe (123) – 2019 Coronation Cup WON
Love (123) – 2020 Oaks WON
Wings of Eagles (123) – 2017 Derby WON

Adayar’s top-class performance when winning last year’s Derby by four and a half lengths takes pride of place here, putting him above fellow Godolphin winner Masar and the Ballydoyle pair Anthony Van Dyck and Wings of Eagles in terms of recent Derby winners.

Enable and Love have both been a cut above average Oaks winners in recent years, winning their races impressively by five and nine lengths respectively, though it’s not all about winning margins as last year’s runaway winner Snowfall was rated 122 after scoring by 16 lengths.

The 2019 edition turned out to be the best recent running of the Coronation Cup for older horses. Although five-year-old Defoe got the better of the year-younger Kew Gardens at level weights, Timeform’s weight-for-age scale says that four-year-olds should receive 2 lb from their elders over a mile and a half at that time of year which technically made Kew Gardens the best horse at the weights.

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