One in ten of crowd will not be back next year

Did everyone have lots of fun at the Derby? Apparently not. The Epsom executive conducted some research among the 56,253 crowd on Saturday and discovered that 10% said they would not come again next year.

As 89% said they would return in 12 months the statistics are rather encouraging for the course. Even more heartening is that when asked: "How do you rate the Derby as a day out?", 48% described it as excellent, 49% good, 3% poor and 0% bad.

The crowd was divided about the preferred day for staging the race as 55% said moving the Derby from Wednesday to Saturday was a good thing and 43% said it was not.

However, bookmakers reported a 20% drop in turnover on the race and joined a number of trainers calling for a return to Wednesday. Roger Charlton, who ran Mystic Knight on Saturday, said: "Although I was in favour of the race being held on a Saturday, I now think we should all go back and accept our mistake." Dick Hern, trainer of Alhaarth, agreed: "I much prefer Wednesday. It makes the race three days farther away from Royal Ascot and it seems better to run the Derby on the first day of the meeting."