You can bank on it
THE CREAM OF the showjumping fraternity will descend on West Sussex in June to contest the 60th running of the Al Shira’aa Derby (Sunday 26 June) following a two-year Covid-19-induced absence from the sporting calendar. The hallowed turf has been the site of many monumental moments forever etched in the memories of riders, officials and spectators alike. To celebrate the Derby’s diamond anniversary, we remember 60 of those times here.
1 Douglas Bunn founded the All England Jumping Course at Hickstead in West Sussex in 1960. He’d dreamed of opening a showground to rival those he had encountered on the continent — Hickstead was the realisation of that dream.
2 A year later, he ran the first British Jumping Derby. He wanted it to be the sort of iconic competition that the public took to its heart, like The Boat Race or the Grand National.
3 Douglas got the idea for the class from having seen newsreel footage of the Hamburg Derby while at the cinema.
4 He flew to Hamburg on New Year’s Eve 1960 and set about measuring the entire Derby course in the middle of a snowstorm, much to the bemusement of the showground’s officials. Hickstead’s Derby Bank ended up being six inches higher than its Hamburg counterpart, perhaps because the falling
