The iconic Derby is back in action this weekend at the famous Epsom Downs in Surrey. This Group 1 flat race, which is open to three-year-old colts and fillies, goes over a distance of one mile, four furlong and 10 yards. This is traditionally held on the first Saturday of June every year and it has the prestige of being the richest horse race in Britain as well. The track is a left-handed affair and the prize purse on the race is a massive £1,325,000 which was set back in 2012.
The Derby is part of the Triple Crown, sitting in the middle of the 2000 Guineas and the St Leger. It’s not often in the modern era that you will see a horse pushing on trying to land the Triple Crown. Who will get their hands on the prestigious crown this year? There has been a tight battle at the head of The Derby 2017 betting market with bookmakers unable to separate Cliffs of Moher and Cracksman who are both trading at a price of 4/1 with bookmaker William Hill.
Epsom Derby 2017 Winner Odds
Cliffs of Moher 4/1, Cracksman 4/1, Eminent 13/2, Permian 9/1, Best Solution 11/1, Capri 11/1, Venice Beach 14/1, Dubai Thunder 14/1, Benbat 25/1, Douglas Macarthur 25/1, Khalidi 25/1, Rekindling 25/1, bar 33/1
Epsom Derby Betting 2017 Promotion
William Hill run a great horse racing betting promotion where you can pick up a bonus! When a horse goes out and wins a flat race (UK and Ireland) by 2 or more lengths, then if you have picked the winner you will pick up a 15% win bonus as a free bet! The maximum bonus that can be earned through this promotion is 100 and is for selected meetings only. There must be 6 or more runners in the race to qualify as well. Register an account with online betting site William Hill and you can collect up to 30 worth of free bets as a welcome bonus from the highly rated bookie as well!
Epsom Derby Betting 2017 Preview
Cliffs of Moher
Let’s look at the Classics this year. The 2000 Guineas was won by Churchill, trained by Aidan O’Brien. The 1000 Guineas was won by Winter, also trained by Aidan O’Brien. The Oaks, yes, that has also won by Aiden O’Brien in the last two seasons and then you have The Derby, which O’Brien has won in three of the past five seasons. So he is the form trainer without a shadow of a doubt in the Classics and therefore it is obviously going to be worth looking at what he has going for the race. He has Cliffs of Moher up as the joint favourite going of the race and with back to back wins for the mare in the most recent outings, it is expected that O’Brien may continue to dominate the Classics for 2017. Son of Galileo, Cliffs of Moher’s most recent win was by a length and a half at the Dee Stakes in early May, taking down Bay Of Poets, justifying his status as favourite for the race.
Cracksman
Here is a course winner at Epsom and that has him going off as the main threat to O’Brien in the race. Trained by John Gosden, he actually missed his trail in the Dante Stakes because of the ground being way too soft. So how will punters feel about that, because he will be going into the Classic short of a run? Gosden won the race a couple of years ago with Golden Horn with Frankie Dettori in the saddle so has form at Epsom. This is the son of the great Frankel and Dettori got him very well settled at Epsom in his last run, where he tracked the leaders well before leading inside the final furlong to edge out Permian. His missed trial casts a bit of a doubt and he was the market leader before that.
Eminent
Trainer Martyn Meade is looking for his first Derby success with Eminent and this is one of Frankel’s prodigies. Eminent is a former winner of the 200 Guineas so has the Classic winning experience and has been pretty prominent in Group One races over the last year. What set him up well for a shot at The Derby was his victory in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket. He didn’t get up until late in the race, but when he did he had stacks of running left in him. He went back to the 2000 Guineas but couldn’t handle the strong pace in the race, which was won by Churchill but look for him to settle in at The Derby to just get pulled along before making a move down the final stretch.
Permian
After losing out by a short head to Cracksman at Epsom in the Derby Trail back in the response of Permian couldn’t have been better really. There was a win at Newmarket by four and a half lengths over Speedo Boy, before importantly boosting form with a win in mid-may in the Betfred Dante Stakes, the final primer for The Derby. Permian beat out Benbat by three-quarters of a length to take the win in that one and that was on soft ground as well. That is important because Cracksman’s win over Permian was on good ground, so if the going is a little on the softer side for The Derby then Permian is going to come into play very well. It is projected that the going will be good at Epsom on the weekend.
Epsom Derby Prediction
The winner is likely to come from one of the four featured horses that we have picked out. Out of the bunch, we are going for Eminent at 13/2 with William Hill to be the one to break the Classics dominance of Aiden O’Brien. Eminent form at the Craven Stakes was immense and that could be the tipping balance. The lightly raced Cliffs Of Moher wasn’t brilliant in his Dee Stakes win, so Cracksman should have the edge over him as well and while he and Permian are likely to have improved since their last outings, Eminent can be the one to come through and take the victory and he looks to be carrying the best value of all.
Epsom Derby history
So you have Aidan O’Brien with form in the race and he has won it five times before so you can’t exactly dismiss him. He is the only person to have trained three consecutive winners of the race as well (completed in 2014). If he wins this season’s edition, that will edge him closer to the record of the leading trainer which is jointly held by Robertson Robson, John Porter and Fred Darling (7). The leading jockey in the history of The Derby is Lester Piggott with nine victories.
Since 2000 the biggest margin of victory at The Derby was Workforce’s seven-length victory in 2010 and just three of the other seventeen winners in that span carded a win by more than three and a half lengths. So margins are pretty tight and it’s worth looking at a one and half-length victory for this one because it is going to be pretty evenly contested. The largest ever margin of victory in the race was produced by legendary Shergar who won by 10 lengths in 1981.
It is said that the name of the race was decided on a coin toss between the 12th Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury at a celebration of the first running of the Oaks Stakes in 1779. It is said that, in planning a new race, they tossed a coin to decide what it would be called and the Earl of Derby won in. Some historians believe that Bunbury, who was the Steward of the Jockey Club, simply deferred to the Earl, who was hosting the celebration.
