Epsom was originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters which sprung at Epsom. The town's market is built on the pond that existed in the Middle Ages. Within the centuries-old boundaries is Epsom Downs Racecourse which features two of the five English Classic horse races; "The Derby" and "The Oaks", which were first run in 1780 and 1779 respectively. On 4 June 1913, Emily Davison, a militant women's suffrage activist, stepped in front of King George V's horse running in the Derby, sustaining fatal injuries. The British Prime Minister and first chairman of the London County Council, Lord Rosebery, was sent
Milligram (horse) at the end of her three-year-old season and had some success as a broodmare. Milligram was a "sparely made, workmanlike" chestnut filly with a white star bred by Egon Weinfeld's Meon Valley Stud. She was from one of the last crops of foals sired by Mill Reef, an American-bred horse who won the Epsom Derby, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1971. Mill Reef's other offspring included Reference Point, Shirley Heights, Lashkari and Doyoun. Milligram was the fourth foal of One In A Million, the winner of the 1979 1000 Guineas, whose