Twenty-seven thousand five hundred souls attended this year's 245th Derby. To repeat, 27,500.
I'd have kept schtum about the number; it's not good propaganda broadcasting how unloved you've become.
For my 50th Derby I was on The Hill, in the centre of the track from where, famously, the Epsom Downs slope to the running rail. Infamously, the slope was becoming the launch pad for streakers - rebels without clothes; and rebels with a cause - Just Stop Oil, Animal Rights, fully clothed but nothing to show for it.
Nowadays the Epsom rail is dotted with a cordon surely recruited from the firm that guarded the Berlin Wall without the Kalashnikovs but with no Checkpoint Charlie for 'loose ones'.
Though the view from The Hill has never cost spectators, it used to be very expensive. Charles Dickens was a mid-nineteenth century regular though he didn't actually call the scene 'Dickensian'. We do - did - until, like the streakers, the lucky white leather ladies, 'find the lady' card sharps, thimbleriggers, pickpockets, duff tipsters, welshers 'by appointment' to the gullible hoi polloi, were all 'moved on'.
Artists over the centuries captured this essential moment of the British at play but today there are no easels on the Downs or the army of evangelists who'd congregate in the certainty that there'd be sinners to be saved, somehow reconciling that message with the messianic, 'the end is nigh'. They've given up the ghost the Holy Ghost. Likewise the absent crowds racing's lost souls.
Epsom Derby Day used to be a treasure trove for observers of class division. Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood still segregate and discriminate but the Derby did so in a subtler fashion, channelling the hoi polloi away from the grandstands and on to The Hill.
In the 19th century horse-drawn carriages, Broughams, Landaus, weaved between gypsy caravans.
Denne historien er fra July 2024-utgaven av Racing Ahead.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra July 2024-utgaven av Racing Ahead.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
LION ROARS TO TOP SPOT
John Anthony is right up with the pace as the speed horses kick on again
JUST STAY IT AGAIN SAM!
Paul Jacobs relishes a grand October climax with final Flat season flourish
TROY JOY OPENS THE FLOODGATES
lan Heitman recounts a month of stunning track highlights
FINEST LAP OF HONOUR
Graham Buddry tells the dramatic tale of Australia's brilliant Southern star
DOWN LAMBOURN WAY
Richard Eagle brings news from the Valley, Epsom and beyond
BOY WILL STEP UP IN THE WET
Ben Morgan sticks to his guns with 10 top tips to follow in the coming weeks
CUTTING BACK TO THE OLD DEBATE
Rolf Johnson weighs up one of racing's perennial chestnuts
FROM BOOK TO BOOKIES
The former Sky frontman turns detective in hunt for Arc clues
FUM-ING BUT NO DISGARCE
Jeremy Grayson picks it up in the sticks after a late summer jumps break
MEMORIES OF SIR MICHAEL'S EARLY DAYS RUN SO DEEP
Dave Youngman looks back at Michael Stoute's road to success