Maiden trip to Epsom reveals an awful lot in common with the familiar home beat

The job of Newmarket correspondent is fairly all-consuming, so much so that I'm ashamed to admit I’d never even managed to fit in a trip to Epsom until last Tuesday, when I was asked to forgo my regular duties and instead cover the annual pre-Derby gallops morning.

Allowing myself plenty of time owing to the early-morning M25 traffic build-up, I got to Epsom at 7am, fully an hour before the first scheduled gallop, yet there were already horses there when I arrived.

While I was expecting to find representatives from the Burrows, Hannon, Teal and Beckett camps, all set to give their prospective Classic candidates a taste of the unique track, these eight horses instead had the initials ‘JB’ on their sheets and were crossing the track near the Rubbing House pub – driving home the point that Epsom is not just a racecourse but a living training centre, just like the town I’d left behind two hours earlier.