Epsom Derby Betting

Past Epsom Derby Reports

2011 Derby: Bad day for The Queen's favourite in Derby betting as Pour Moi triumphs

Epsom Derby 2010 & Review: Workforce lands the odds at 6/1 in betting

Epsom Derby Result 2009: Sea The Stars is first horse to land Guineas and Derby double

The Derby 2008: Bolger shines with New Approach

Follow top Epsom jockeys in Derby betting

Before you take your pick of the runners in the Epsom Derby betting odds, it is always worth just checking on the jockey form.

Epsom is an extraordinary course. It has ridiculous undulations and a truly horrendous camber in the home straight. If you ever get the opportunity, do walk the track. It, more than any course, takes some knowing for the little men on board. If you were looking for a track on which to race the Derby nowadays you would rule out Epsom Downs on the spot. It is wholly unsuitable by modern standards. That is why so many claim it is the ultimate test for a three-year-old colt. That is why jockey form is more important here than anywhere else.

Since the year 2000, there is one jockey who has won the race three times, most interestingly for three different trainers. Can you guess who it is? Wrong! It is actually that superb horseman Johnny Murtagh.

Many wise judges would have Murtagh as one of the top jocks in the world to have on your side. In the big race at Epsom that is even more the case. He won in 2000 for John Oxx (Sinndar). Then he did it again two years later on High Chaparral for Ballydoyle and Aidan O'Brien. It was handler Michael Bell's turn to be the beneficiary of the Murtagh magic when Motivator took the spoils in 2005.

Murtagh holds the best record but another renowned jockey who you always want on your side in the big races is Kieren Fallon. He has the next best record at two wins since the century started. He landed it in 2003 and 2004 on Kris Kin and North Light, both for Michael Stoute. Perhaps Fallon deserves equal billing on our list of riders to follow in the Epsom Derby. That is because he first landed the race in 1999 on Henry Cecil's Oath. We were not going to go back that far, but for the sake of one year it seems churlish to ignore it.

They are the only two jockeys to have landed it more than once this century. Could you have guessed that everyone's favourite Italian would not make the list? Well Frankie Dettori has won the race, just the single time, on Authorized, who justified favouritism in the 2007 Epsom Derby betting. He was on the best horse in the race that year for sure but Dettori did give Peter Chapple-Hyam's horse a peach of a ride. He came from last to first, on the outside, avoiding the numerous Ballydoyle runners that could have got in his way.

Dettori is unfortunate not to have had more success at the Surrey track. He has let down an awful lot of housewives over the years. It is amazing they keep shovelling the cash on him. However he has been lumbered with the rides on various slow horses for his patron Sheikh Mohammed. Their operation has been singularly unsuccessful in this particular race, despite all the billions those rulers of Dubai have chucked at it.

One other worthy of a mention in dispatches is top jockey Ryan Moore, a one-time winner in 2010 with Workforce. He, like Dettori, is a man to go with, not against, in the big races.

The moral of the tale is do not ignore the rider form. Pick a jockey who knows his way around a track that can prove a nightmare for a rookie. Keep that in mind the next time you are scanning the Epsom Derby betting odds looking for that winner to jump out of the page at you.