BBC Five Live's Luke Harvey will provide listeners with a unique insight into Epsom Racecourse on Derby Day. Harvey, who presents the station's morning racing bulletins, was fitted with a special microphone as he rode around the track for a feature which will be broadcast on Saturday. "I got a feel about what the ground was like and all the undulations, from the start to the top of the hill and then how steep it is downhill," he said.
As he retraces the steps of previous Epsom triumphs, the former jump jockey recalls dramas from previous runnings of the Classic.
"At the highest point of the course, I was imagining how it must have felt for Greville Starkey and Dancing Brave when he realised he was still 10 to 15 lengths off the pace with a wall of horses in front of you," he said.
"Into the straight, I talk about Freddie Head who went out and lost seven or eight lengths on the bend.
"Coming down the hill in the home straight, the ground really rolls away from you - it's very downhill for the last three furlongs.
"Then I remembered where Johnny Murtagh kicked High Chaparral on for victory last year." Harvey said the ground on the mile-and-a-half course was perfect, 'like a carpet', as he rode 10 days before the big race.
"I was completely on my own, so I could shout and scream as much as I liked. It was a very exciting experience," he added.
Harvey rode more than 250 winners in his 15-year career as a jump jockey.
And listeners can savour his unique reaction as he passes the winning post for one more time.
MMIX
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