Dubai: The Investec Derby Festival is beyond doubt the most highly anticipated event on the British flat racing calendar, and not without good reason.

Not only does it feature two of the most exciting, famous and challenging races for the Classic generation — the Derby (G1) and the Oaks (G1) — it also boasts a history unrivalled by any other race meeting.

Since the 1980s, the Al Maktoum Family have led an Emirati invasion of Epsom, with more than 100 Dubai-owned runners having run in the two-century-old contest that currently rewards the winner with a record purse of £1.4 million (Dh7.8 million).

Of these, seven colts have brought home the spoils, with Nashwan being the first in 1989 and New Approach the most recent to succeed when triumphing in 2008.

While Godolphin, the stable created in 1992 by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has sent out the most number of runners (27) for the one success, Lammtarra in 1996, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, is the most successful Emirati owner with two wins. Erhaab gave him a second Derby triumph 1994.

Other notable individual winners of Britain’s blue riband race include Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of Shaikh Mohammad, with New Approach in 2008, Shaikh Mohammad Obaid Al Maktoum who scored with High-Rise in 1998 and Khalifa Bin Dasmal, the Dubai Racing Club Steward, who saw his 12/1 outsider Shaamit romp to a famous victory in 1995.

Perhaps, however, the most celebrated winner is Godolphin’s Lammtarra, who made history of sorts when he beat the odds to triumph over his more fancied rivals in 1995 in what is considered an all-time Epsom classic.

Although his participation in the Derby was in doubt in the lead-up to the race after he contracted a virus while wintering in Dubai, Lammtarra showed no signs of the illness or rust on his seasonal reappearance, winning by a length under Walter Swinburn, in what was then a course-record time of 2;32.31 seconds.

He would go on to win the King George and Arc de Triumph and stamp himself as one of the best horses of his generation, He died at the age of 22.

His trainer Saeed Bin Surour led the tributes saying: “He is one of the best horses I have trained. He was a great horse, it is sad to lose him and we will miss him, but he will be remembered forever.”

On Saturday, Godolphin will seek to win a long-sought-after second Derby with Jack Hobbs, a proven Group 1 horse who looks bred to stay the distance of a mile and a half.

He faces 11 rivals in what looks to be one of the most open renewals of the 236th running of the great race.

Of special interest is the fact that the Derby has attracted the first three home in the Dante Stakes (G2) one of the most solid preps for the race with nine horses having achieved the double.

Heading the markets is the John Gosden-trained Golden Horn, a compelling winner of the York showpiece who did not hold an entry for the Derby. He was however, supplemented to the race at a cost of £75,000, Golden Horn is the only unbeaten horse in a field of 12.

Also trained by Gosden, Jack Hobbs was second to his stable companion in the Dante but his breeding implies that he should improve over a longer distance, like the Derby.

Elm Park, winner of last season’s Racihg Post Trophy (G1), was making his seasonal debut when third in the Dante and is expected to have come on for the effort.

Irish handler Aidan O’Brien is bidding for an unprecedented fourth straight Derby triumph and sixth overall with a trio or runners led by Hans Holbein, the Chester Vase winner.

However, big-race jockey Ryan Moore has opted to partner Giovanni Canaletto instead with may suggest that he heads Irish pecking order.

Epicuris, a Group 1-winning two-year-old from France, represents Mme Criquette Head-Maarek, while Germany’s globe-trotting handler Anders Wohler runs Rogue Runner.