Racing: Ready cash for Saturday Derby: New funds, but Classic need for sense of occasion remains. Greg Wood reports

BULLETINS with codewords were among the more absurd secrecy measures used by managers of Epsom racecourse as it concluded negotiations with a new sponsor for the Derby, but as Lester Piggott pressed a big green button at the Savoy yesterday to reveal that Vodafone will support the finest Classic for the next three years, there were no gasps of astonishment. Still less surprising was the fact that, while the tail remained motionless, the dog was wagging furiously.

The mobile phone company will make an investment of pounds 3.5m over the next three years to ensure every race at the three-day Derby meeting - recently rescheduled to run from Friday to Sunday - will carry a name of its choosing. The Oaks will be run next year on Friday, 9 June, with a supporting card including the Diomed Stakes, while both the Derby and Coronation Cup will take place the following day.

The significant word in all this is investment, since the attitude of the Epsom executives yesterday might have implied that Vodafone's money is more of a donation. Though barely a decade old, Vodafone is already one of the top 25 companies in the FT- SE 100 Index, a position which has not been achieved by casually throwing money at needy sporting events.

The firm is currently developing important new markets in major racing countries including Australia and South Africa, where association with such a historic and respected name as the Derby will prove immeasurably valuable.

The figures seem impressive - the Derby will have a guaranteed value of pounds 850,000 of which more than pounds 500,000 will be received by the winning owner - but while Vodafone's money is certainly very welcome, it will probably buy rather more than it should. How long will it be before someone becomes carried away and claims that Diomed won the first Vodafone Derby in 1780, or that Lester Piggott has won nine Vodafone Derbys?

The task now facing the management of Epsom racecourse is to build wisely around the new investment - added prize money for 1995's Derby meeting will be pounds 1,055,000, a 23 per cent increase on this year - and in particular to restore some of the sense of occasion and heritage which has been evaporating from Derby day for at least a decade.

The view from Epsom appears to be that moving the Derby to Saturday from its traditional position on the first Wednesday in June is a vital step towards that target, but whether or not the managers are correct will become apparent only on 10 June, 1995. Though the advance sales of badges for the sumptuous Queen's Stand may be impressive, the old-time strength and excitement of Derby day derived from its role as a meeting for the masses. The numbers passing through the turnstiles to the central course enclosure will be much more significant.

But the grandchildren of the racegoers who once occupied the Downs in hundreds of thousands have grown up in a more discerning world, and heritage alone will not tempt them back if the present regime of exorbitant ticket prices and primeval facilities is allowed to continue. Two centuries of memories ensure that Derby day is still the most captivating date in the racing calendar. It will retain that position only if the new investment announced yesterday is used with care and understanding.