Dettori bids to break Derby duck

Millions of spectators will tune in to watch the 228th Epsom Derby today as champion jockey Frankie Dettori aims to score his first win in the world famous event.

More than 100,000 racing enthusiasts will head to Epsom Downs in Surrey, England for what is described as the greatest flat race in the world.

The race will also be watched by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as she celebrates the 54th anniversary of her coronation.

The 18 horses set to run, out of a maximum field of 20, will race the mile and a half Derby course which climbs and curves over Epsom Downs.

Dettori – who once rode all seven winners on a single day at Ascot in 1996 - will be hoping to finally score his first Derby success on favourite Authorized after 14 previous attempts at victory on the course.

The colt is set to be sent off the first odds-on favourite for the Classic since Michael Stoute’s Entrepreneur in 1997.

And with bookmakers Ladbrokes predicting more than £30m (€44m) will be bet on Dettori and his charge, bookies are hoping for an upset in the world-famous race.

If Dettori and Authorized win, it will be the first time since Shergar raced to victory in 1981 that the odds-on favourite has won the Derby.

The 36-year-old jockey has never won the flat race, although he has been runner-up once and third on three occasions.

The race is the climax of the two-day Derby festival which dates back to 1780.