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
Tattenham Corner line not materialise. In December 2013 the old sidings at Tattenham Corner were reinstated to support overnight storage of some of the new trains ordered since 2011, as part of the train-lengthening process. Tattenham Corner line The Tattenham Corner line is a railway line in Southern England that runs between Purley in South London and Tattenham Corner in Surrey. The line was opened in two parts. The first stage was built from Purley as far as Kingswood as the Chipstead Valley Railway. Local MP and Chairman of the South Eastern Railway at the time, Sir Cosmo Bonsor proposed the line in