Jun 1, 1998. Copyright, 1998, Graphic News. All rights reserved

DERBY DAY
By Midge Todhunter

LONDON, Jun 1, Graphic News:  The bearded lady may be gone from the hill; the bare-fisted boxing booths confined to the history books. Yet tradition dictates that the gypsies still gather; aristocrats and artisans, viscounts and villains, and all others will amass to provide the central element of the occasion Ð the crowd, and to witness the cream of EuropeÕs young equine stars be thrust into a contest of fire and brimstone, where the winner takes all. And the Pearly King and Queen will belt out Ôgimme a gerwl from old Lan-don townÕ, as 80,000 foot-tapping racegoers wend their way home.

To be at Epsom on Derby Day is to play a part in a wonderfully eccentric theatrical affair; one of the sporting and social highlights of the British summer. Where the crass meet the refined Ð where oik and toff chat side by side, and look enviously on as spivs place bets, using the kind of figures most people equate to buying houses.

In as many acres as the eye can take in, the whole thing is laid out like some giant tapestry on life. Away to the right, the starting point of the great race itself. Bursting from the stalls, the runners follow the skyline left, to the top of the hill, past the caravans, the fun-fairs and the odd rogue bookie, before sweeping back down via the famous Tattenham corner, past the fortune tellers and the carpet sellers, and onwards up the long straight to the line where Royalty (and the worldÕs media) await to hail the victor.

In front of the stands, a hundred or more open-topped buses line the racetrack only yards from where the horses thunder past, providing liquid lunch and an elevated view for a thousand shirtless cockneys. While ladies of ill repute dance alluringly to the tunes of nearby jazz bands in the glow of the afternoon sun. Each and all part of the unique carnival atmosphere.

Although the name has been poached to all corners of the globe, this gathering for the worldÕs most famous flat race still defies imitation. For it is quintessentially English. The unique demands of EpsomÕs gruelling 12 furlongs, alongside the mingling masses of the great, the good, and the not so good, would be impossible to reproduce anywhere.
ENDS/