Horse racing: Oaks day opens Derby festival, Epsom ground news and more

The Guardian

06-06-2025

Update:
Date: 2025-06-06T10:00:33.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Good morning from Epsom racecourse on this first day of this year's Derby meeting, where racing professionals and a scattering of early punters alike are staring anxiously at the skies and wondering how the ground will be riding for both Friday's Oaks and the Derby itself in a little over 24 hours' time.
There is plenty of blue sky above the track at present but there was rain earlier and it has already been one of the trickier run-ups to the Classic meeting in Andrew Cooper's 30-year tenure as clerk of the course.
'I've never known such a prolonged dry period from March, April and through into May, so it's been challenging,' Cooper told the draw ceremony in a local cinema on Wednesday. 'It hasn't been great for grass, it's been constant irrigation just to get us to where we want to be.
'There was 3.5mm of rain on Tuesday, which was forecast, but it's very localised and Sandown [eight miles away] didn't get any at all. It's unsettled for sure, and in terms of the volume of rain on a race day, when you're racing over the ground, it really doesn't take a lot to start shifting things quite quickly.'
The Jockey Club's live update page for Epsom was reporting a total of 4.8mm since midnight at 9.30am today, and 11.4mm over the previous seven days. As a result, the going at Epsom is now good to soft, good in places, having been good all over two days ago, though as yet there is little impact on the Oaks betting, where Desert Flower, the 1,000 Guineas winner, remains a solid favourite at around 6-4 despite the nagging doubts about whether she will see out the 12-furlong trip.
Whirl, one of three runners from the Aidan O'Brien yard, is a drifter this morning, however, out to 6-1 from around 9-2 overnight, while Minnie Hauk, the mount of O'Brien's No 1, Ryan Moore, is a solid second-favourite at around 5-1.
The main supporting race on the Classic card is the Coronation Cup at 2.40pm, for older horses over the full Derby and Oaks trip, and the very likeable Calandagan, who has finished either first or second on his last eight starts, will be favourite here to get an overdue first Group One win on the board. You can read my full preview of today's TV races here.
The card is under way at 1.30pm with the Surrey Stakes over seven furlongs, and all the news and results from Oaks day will be here on the blog within seconds as the afternoon's action unfolds.