Every Derby Has A Story

Next week was due to be the 59th running of the Hickstead Derby. Penny Richardson picks out highlights of showjumping’s blue riband event

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Ask any sports fan in the UK if they’ve heard of Hickstead and the answer is likely to be: “Is that the place where horses go up and down a big bank?”

Of course, Hickstead is an awful lot more than that, with the showground celebrating its 60th birthday this year, but the Derby is one of those unique British occasions that crosses the line between sport and general interest.

In 1961, when Douglas Bunn supervised the construction of permanent obstacles to run a Derby class at his West Sussex home, not even he could have imagined that nearly six decades later that same competition over an almost identical course would still be making headlines.

Every Derby provides its own story. In 1963, Ted Edgar tackled the course with his broken arm in a sling and in 1996, 60-year-old Brazilian Nelson Pessoa was still recovering from a heart attack when he arrived at the showground. He wore a heart monitor in case the excitement got too much and still jumped the winning round, adding this to his two victories in the 1960s.

The Hickstead Derby has been won by a pony – the incomparable Stroller – and provided a phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary after a triumphant V-sign following the winning round in 1971 became known as “doing a Harvey Smith”.

Douglas devised the course after a trip to Hamburg in Germany, which began hosting its own Derby in 1924. When Douglas visited, he took measurements of Hamburg’s bank and added a few inches to ensure that his version would be bigger.