The first recorded race was held on the Downs in 1661, although a local burial list of 1625 refers to "William Stanley who in running the race fell from his horse and brake his neck" and in some sources racing is recorded as dating from the 1640s, so it is likely that racing was established much earlier than that. Epsom is referenced in the
diary of
Samuel Pepys in 1663 and
Charles II is said to have been a racegoer there. By 1684, Epsom had a
clerk of the course and from 1730 was hosting twice yearly race meetings. At Epsom on 3 May 1769 the famous racehorse
Eclipse had the first of his many victories in an undefeated career on the turf. , In the summer of 1779
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, organised a race for himself and his friends to race their three-year-old
fillies. He named it the
Oaks after his nearby estate. The race became so successful that in the following year 1780 a new race was added for three-year-old colts and fillies—-
the Derby. In 1784 the course was extended to its current distance of a mile and a half and
Tattenham Corner was introduced.
Henry Dorling, step-father to cookery writer
Mrs Beeton, was a Clerk of the Course at Epsom, appointed in 1840. In 1913 the
suffragette Emily Davison threw herself in front of
King George V's horse
Anmer, bringing him down. Davison was badly injured and died four days later. In 1952 the racecourse was featured extensively in the film
Derby Day set around the 1952 Epsom Derby. In 2009 the racecourse opened the new Duchess's Stand, named after
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. It has a capacity of 11,000 and has a 960 m2 (10 000 sq ft) hall. It can be used for banqueting, conferences and exhibitions. The estimated cost of the new stand, which was built by
Willmott Dixon, was £23.5 million. On 4 June 2011, in their first public outing since returning from their
Seychelles honeymoon,
Prince William, now the Prince of Wales, and his wife,
Catherine, (along with
the late Queen, William's brother,
Prince Harry, and Catherine's parents,
Michael and
Carole Middleton) attended the
2011 Epsom Derby at the track. In 2022 the main stand of the racecourse, previously been known as The Queen's Stand, was renamed the Queen Elizabeth II Stand. ==Description==