Epsom Derby Festival

Two days at Epsom Downs built around the single most prestigious race in the Flat calendar - the Derby, the middle jewel of the English Triple Crown and the race that defines a horse's - and often a trainer's or breeder's - career more than any other single result.

What makes it different

The Derby isn't run on a fair, galloping track like most Group 1s - it's run on one of the most unusual and demanding courses in the world, with a steep downhill run and a sharp left-handed camber at Tattenham Corner that catches horses out every single year. That means Derby form doesn't always look like form anywhere else, and horses that win it often do so partly because they handle the track, not purely because they're the best three-year-old in the country.

Key races

The Derby itself, over a mile and a half for three-year-old colts and fillies, is run on the Saturday. The Oaks - the fillies' equivalent, run over the same demanding course - takes place the same weekend, and the Coronation Cup, an older-horse Group 1 over the same trip, rounds out the meeting's top-level action.

Betting angle

Track suitability is everything at Epsom - a horse with the class to win a Derby can still get eliminated by an inability to handle the gradient and camber, so trial form from other Derby-prep races (especially ones with similar undulations) is worth more than a flat Group 1 win elsewhere. Draw and racing position matter more here than at most tracks given how much the course shape can dictate the run of a race.