'Once exchanges came into the game they totally ruined everything'

Epsom. Home of the Derby since 1780 and the stage for some of racing’s greatest narratives, tales of bookmaker woes are certainly nothing new here.

Yet it is not the names of winning Derby favourites like Shergar and Nijinsky, or more recently Authorized and Golden Horn, that make them wince today, more the state of their online ledgers that lay bare the reality of trying to make a fulsome living from a malnourished on-course market.

The first Saturday in June may not be as busy or as profitable for bookmakers as when the Derby was staged on Wednesday but compared to the last Tuesday in August, the day after a Bank Holiday and the town’s popular open morning, it’s the difference between downtown Beijing and Outer Mongolia.