A wet Epsom in 2026 gave Aidan O’Brien a fourth successive Derby with Christmas Day, a day after his son Joseph won the Oaks.
Aidan O’Brien won his fourth successive Derby at the Derby Festival, held at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, Surrey, on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 June 2026. Rain turned the going soft before the race.
The Derby is open to three-year-old colts and fillies and is the most celebrated of the five Classics. The Oaks, run for fillies, dates from 1779, the year before the first Derby.
For 2026 the Derby purse rose to £2 million.
Thundering On won the Betfred Oaks on the Friday for the trainer Joseph O’Brien. On the Saturday his father’s Christmas Day, a son of the 2012 Derby winner Camelot, won under Ronan Whelan. He beat Maltese Cross by two and three-quarter lengths.
Whelan was in his second season riding for Ballydoyle, and it was his first Derby. For O’Brien it was a 12th Derby and a 50th British Classic, and the first Derby and Oaks double for a father and son.
The soft ground made it the slowest winning time since 1983. The favourite, Benvenuto Cellini, stumbled leaving the stalls, finished ninth and was later declared a non-runner by the stewards.