Papyrus (1920–1941) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from spring 1922 to October 1924, he ran eighteen times and nine races. He was a leading two-year-old in 1922 and, in the following year, he gained his most important success when he won The Derby. Later that season, he gained international attention when he was sent to New York for an unsuccessful match race against the Kentucky Derby winner Zev. This was the earliest example of a British horse being sent across the Atlantic for a single race. After running four times without winning, in 1924, he was retired to stud, where he had limited success until his death in 1941.

The Derby Stakes, also known as the Derby or the Epsom Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey on the first Saturday of June each year, over a distance of one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards, or about 1½ miles. It was first run in 1780.