Derby still has its passion but the crowds are dwindling

Yellow weather warning put a lid on the walk-up attendance on the Hill at Epsom on Saturday, and though the Derby itself avoided the worst of the rain, when it did arrive, about half an hour after the big race, it sent many spectators scurrying for an early exit.

- Greg Wood

At the end of a three-month period with historically low rainfall, it was horribly bad luck. But there was still something else missing at what was once Britain's greatest public sporting event.

Aidan O'Brien put his finger on it, albeit obliquely, after Lambourn's all-the-way victory in the Classic. "Chester [where Lambourn trialled for Epsom in the Chester Vase] is a great place for putting an edge on a horse," he said. "There's a great atmosphere there."

He's right. There is. But the buzz that gave Lambourn his first taste of a big-race atmosphere in the tight confines of the Roodee was sadly lacking when he arrived at the much broader expanse of Epsom. There were simply not enough people there to generate the background hum of noise and excitement that, even a decade ago and whatever the weather, was there from the moment you parked your car or walked out of Tattenham Corner station.