Now in case you have ever wondered of the connection between the Derby horse race, and Derby the county, allow me to explain. It was actually named after the twelfth Earl of Derby, Edward Smith-Stanley. Though it could easily have been named the Bunbury after Sir Charles Bunbury, the current chairman of the Jockey Club. Proof that both these men were gamblers is that when they both decided to inaugurate a race, they tossed a coin to see whose name it would carry. And our man won, hence The Derby. But there was a bit of consolation, as on May 4, 1780 Sir Charles Bunbury was the owner of the first ever Derby winner, Diomed.
Now the reason why the Derby is run at Epsom, not Derby, was that though the twelfth Earl had been born in Preston, his uncle by marriage had allowed him to take over his house, near the Epsom Downs. In fact the Earl was a steward at Epsom Racecourse.
Another fun fact is that this house was called The Oaks, and yes, that race, first run in 1779, was indeed named after it. In fact The Oaks came first, and it was at the after party for the first one that the coin was produced and the Derby named.
The 1926 Derby was on Wednesday 2nd June, and the winner was bred by the 1st Baron Woolavington and trained by Fred Darling at Beckhampton. However it was not our horse, it was Coronach, ridden by Joe Childs. Now as usually happens, lots of people enter their horses for races but circumstances occur in between; in 1926, though nineteen horses were there at the start, this had been whittled down from over three hundred who had expressed an interest to take part. So it looks likely that our horse was not thought a likely winner, or maybe Coronach just performed better over the intervening races and got the nod instead.
Ogden`s issued three sets of "Derby Entrants" for the years 1926, 1928 and 1929. I have no idea why there was not a 1927 set. They differ, a bit, as can be seen in our original Ogdens Reference Book, RB.15, issued in 1949, where the trio are catalogued together as :
125 DERBY ENTRANTS. Fronts printed by letterpress. Backs in grey with descriptive text. Home issues in years stated.
71. 1926. Series of 25. Fronts in colour. Horses and owners colours.
72. 1928. Series of 50. Fronts in colour. Horses only.
73. 1929. Series of 50. Fronts in sepia. Horses, some with jockeys up.
However in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, our set is listed as : "DERBY ENTRANTS. 1926. Sm. Nd. (25) See RB.21/215-71.A" And the others follow below it, without the RB.21 reference, just changing the number in the set, for they were both of fifty cards, and adding "Sepia" between the "Sm." and the "Nd." in the 1929 series. They do not mention the change in the pictures at all. And I forgot to copy the code from the modern book!
I was temporarily confused by the mention of RB.21, on just that one set, especially as the cards are numbered. However it tells us that this 1926 set was issued by another maker, presumably British American Tobacco,. This is described as :
215-71. DERBY ENTRANTS, 1926. This series was issued as follows :-
A. Ogden`s Home issue - titled "Derby Entrants, 1926"
B. Anonymous issue, with letterpress on back.