The king and queen will attend the 247th running of the Derby on 6 June, reviving what was a traditional engagement in the calendar for Queen Elizabeth II for most of her 70-year reign.<\/p>\n
The late Queen missed just two renewals of the Classic at Epsom Downs between 1953 \u2013 when her colt Aureole finished second, four days after her coronation \u2013 and the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n
King Charles and Queen Camilla were at Epsom to watch the Oaks, which is run a day earlier, in 2024, but the news of their attendance for the track\u2019s most famous race is a significant boost for a race which has suffered a major decline in attendance in recent years. The official attendance for the Derby in 2022, the first post-pandemic year without crowd restrictions, was 37,274, just 770 below the 2019 figure of 38,044, but last year\u2019s race pulled in just 22,787 fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are honoured and thrilled the king and queen will be joining us at Epsom Downs on Derby day,\u201d Jim Allen, Epsom\u2019s general manager, said. \u201cTheir majesties show great enthusiasm, interest and support for horse racing in the UK and their attendance next week will be a proud moment for all of the team here and everyone connected with the racecourse. Royal attendance has been synonymous with the meeting for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The king and queen are patrons of the Jockey Club, which owns and operates Epsom, and while the royal colours will not be involved in either the Derby or the Oaks, their string includes runners that could be entered on the Classic undercard.<\/p>\n
The Carlisle racecourse gets a rare moment in the ITV Racing spotlight on Saturday after Haydock\u2019s track failed an inspection earlier in the week, and the card also includes the rearranged Silver Bowl Handicap, which was one of three races abandoned at Haydock last weekend when a hole appeared due to drainage issues on the main track.<\/p>\n
Most of the fancied runners in that race are back to take their chance seven days later, including Princling, the likely favourite, and the front-running Crest Of Fire, but Carlisle\u2019s long climb to the line is a different test and Laureate Crown (3.45) could be the beneficiary.<\/p>\n
Hugo Palmer\u2019s gelding has registered two wins already this season, including a convincing success in the Esher Cup at Sandown \u2013 another course that favours stamina \u2013 last time out. Laureate Crown\u2019s strong-travelling, hold-up run-style looks ideally suited to Saturday\u2019s track and trip and he makes plenty of each-way appeal at around 10-1.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Saturday tipsShow<\/p>\n
Chester 1.15 Town Queen 1.50 Blake\u2019s Monarch\u00a02.20 Undercover Affair 2.53 Believitanducan 3.30 Elements Of Fire (nb) 4.05 Champonie 4.38 Mayaada<\/p>\n
Carlisle 1.30 Opportunity 2.00 Wild Clary\u00a02.33 Redorange 3.10 Estrange 3.45 Laureate Crown (nap) 4.20 Distant Shore 4.55 Wild Thoughts 5.28 Priapos\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beverley 1.45 Urban Glimpse 2.15 Kodi Bear Light\u00a02.48 Matteo 3.25 Urchin 4.00 Physique 4.32 Vietnorm 5.08 Copper And Five<\/p>\n
Catterick Bridge 1.55 Skip To Victory 2.27 I\u2019m Dan Dare 2.58 Mr Writer 3.35 Fleur De Mer 4.12 Wen Moon\u00a04.43 Battenburg Belle 5.17 Star Of Emerald\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lingfield 5.42 Panthere Noir 6.12 Pride Of Nepal\u00a06.42 Sweet Reward 7.12 Queencard 7.42 Sword Salute 8.12 Vidmiyr 8.42 Woolridge<\/p>\n
Stratford-On-Avon 5.50 Machete Beach 6.20 Little Lady Lucy 6.50 Juan Bermudez 7.20 Imperial Alex 7.50 Rocks Up Late 8.20 Two To Tango 8.50 Masonbrook Meadow<\/p>\n
Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n
Carlisle 1.30: The choicely bred Opportunity has had a stop-start career so far but having been gelded over the winter, this could be the year when William Haggas makes the most of a highly workable opening handicap mark.<\/p>\n
Beverley 1.45: With just seven races in the book, Urban Glimpse is the least-exposed runner by some margin and a solid return to action at Goodwood earlier this month should set him up for a first handicap success.<\/p>\n
Carlisle 2.00: Wild Clary improved from his first start for six months when finishing a close second at Ripon in April and has little to find on that form to go close.<\/p>\n
Beverley 2.15: A tricky event to weigh up as Kodi Bear Light has the best form on offer but the worst of the draw, while the unraced Cosmic Mystery was a big-money breeze-up buy earlier this year. Karl Burke\u2019s filly showed plenty of pace last time, however, and shades the vote at the likely odds.<\/p>\n
Carlisle 2.33: Clive Cox\u2019s Redorange looks an improved performer this year and more than ready for the return to Listed company, having finished a strong second at this level at Deauville last year.<\/p>\n
Beverley 2.48: Kevin Ryan\u2019s Matteo was a convincing winner in a strong time over track and trip on debut in April and will be tough to catch from stall one.<\/p>\n
Carlisle 3.10: The sporting decision to keep Estrange in training for another season should get an early reward, in a Listed contest that David O\u2019Meara\u2019s mare won easily at Haydock 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
Chester 3.30: The front-running Elements Of Fire is back at his ideal trip after leading to the furlong-pole over six furlongs at Ascot last time, and Archie Watson\u2019s gelding has the perfect draw in stall one to take charge from the off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The king and queen will attend the 247th running of the Derby on 6 June, reviving what was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-248123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}