Epsom in fine fettle

Epsom clerk of the course Andrew Cooper is predicting good ground for the start of the two-day Classic meeting on Friday.

Dry weather is set to prevail throughout the week with Cooper expecting to water the course at some stage before the meeting.

"This is lovely good ground, just a shade faster in what we know to be the usual quick-drying areas but if we were racing on it on Sunday, I would have no hesitation in calling it good ground," he told At The Races.

"I think most forecasts are telling us we will probably stay dry.

"The sunny, warm spell will maybe come to a bit of an end in the middle part of the week, but only in as much as we will be a shade cooler and cloudier towards the latter part of the week, with very little meaningful prospect of rain or showers or anything like that.

"I think we will (water) but I don't think we will need a great deal to hold it at nice, Flat racing ground. I think it's one of those years where it is kind of in our hands.

"It's lovely ground now and we could almost do whatever we wanted to with it.

"After walking the track, we might aim to put something like six to 10 millimetres on the track through the course of this week at some point, probably in one application, but that's not definite.

"That should be enough to keep it at or near where we think we should be at the end of the week.

"I think most people would probably say the Derby should be run on the fast side of good, I would probably call that good, good to firm places as a description as opposed to calling it good to firm.

"(We should be) in that kind of territory for Saturday, which means we probably will be a notch easier on Friday - maybe good ground."