Epsom Downs Racecourse 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
Pioneer Race Course third round, Hunt was shot in the abdomen and died. In October 1854, the race course was the site of the stock show at the first California State Fair. From 1862 until 1863 (some sources report 1865) the site of the course served a civil war encampment called Camp Alert for the 2nd California Cavalry, before they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. The course was the site of a celebration of the completion of the San Francisco-San Jose Railway in October 1863, and for a time also served as the railway's San Francisco station. The positioning of the course,