Sir Anthony Mann: 1.
This is an interim application in which the Claimant, which is a Company owned wholly by the Jockey Club, seeks injunctive relief in order to permit the smooth running of the Derby, which is to take place a week tomorrow on June 3 rd . On that day, the Derby, which is as everyone knows an annual race, is to be run and it features three year old colts who are, by their age and nature, highly strung and relatively inexperienced, at least compared with the sort of horses one sees in the Grand National. 2. The claimant company fears that disruption organised by a loose association known as Animal Rising, which has or claims to have animal welfare at its heart, will disrupt the race in order to achieve publicity and to diminish sympathy for horse racing amongst the general public. It is feared that they will do so by such tactics as invading the racetrack itself or conceivably by interfering with or alarming or frightening horses as they move about before the running of the race. 3. The Claimant therefore seeks an injunction to restrain such interference. It seeks the injunction against what I will loosely call for the moment two classes of people. The first is one known person, a Mr Daniel Kidby, who has been identified as someone who is perhaps central to the organisation of this loose association, insofar as it has an organisation, and who it is said has threatened to be one of those who will attend in order to disrupt the race. 4. Mr Kidby has attended court today, but although he is the First Defendant and the only known defendant in the case, he has indicated that he wishes merely to attend and not to make representations because he considers that will reduce potential costs to which he might otherwise be liable. He has therefore sat and listened to the proceedings, but not otherwise participated. 5. The other class of persons who are defendants in these proceedings are various types of “ persons unknown ” , described in various ways mainly related to areas of the racecourse in relation to which it is feared that they will interfere. I will come to the terms of that in due course. 6. The further background to this matter is as follows. The Derby is run on Epsom Downs. Epsom Downs has a curious status. The Claimant Company is the freehold owner of large areas of Epsom Downs. Those areas include the area of the racetrack itself, which is an important matter for reasons to which I will come in a moment, and also areas which comprise the grandstands, stables, paddocks, parade ring and other ancillary areas. 7. However, the public has a general right of access to Epsom Downs under a piece of legislation known as the Epsom and Walton Downs Regulation Act 1984. The access given to the public is over a large area of the freehold owned by the Claimant Company, and in particular, it covers in general terms, the area on which the Actual racetrack on which the Derby is run is situated. 8. However, the rights of the public in that respect are regulated by the Act, to which I have just referred. Furthermore, the Act confers rights on what is described as the
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