Ladies Day and the Betfred Oaks on Friday 4 June 2027, Derby Day and the Betfred Derby on Saturday 5 June, run at four o'clock at Epsom Downs.
The Derby was invented at a party in 1779 held to mark the first running of the Oaks, and the new race was to be named after either the host, the 12th Earl of Derby, or one of his guests, Sir Charles Bunbury. Legend says a coin decided it; more likely Bunbury, then Steward of the Jockey Club, deferred to his host. The first Derby was run on Thursday 4 May 1780 and won by Diomed, a colt owned by Bunbury, for prize money of £1,065 15s. The distance was extended to a mile and a half in 1784.
Epsom is a genuinely difficult racecourse and that is the point of it. The track climbs, falls and turns sharply left at Tattenham Corner on ground whose camber shifts under a horse at speed, so a Derby winner has to stay a mile and a half, handle a slope and keep its balance under pressure. Nothing else in the Classic programme asks all three at once.
The 2027 Festival takes two days on the Downs at Epsom. Friday 4 June is Ladies Day and carries the Oaks, the fillies’ Classic; Saturday 5 June is Derby Day, with the race run at four. The dress code applies in the Queen Elizabeth II Stand on the Saturday and nowhere else on the course.