WRITING 55 years ago in The Field magazine, John Loder was much taken with York Racecourse.

"'The Ascot of the North' it is called sometimes," he noted. "In fact York, in some respects, is even pleasanter than that. Not only has it everything that Ascot has in the way of dignity and charm, but it has it all in what seems a much more agreeably bucolic sort of way."

Whether the next few days provide scenes as pastoral as this remains to be seen. For one year only the Ascot of the North becomes Royal Ascot itself, and no one can be sure how this unprecedented experiment will unfold.

One thing is certain. It will provide another memorable chapter in the history of York racing.

Horses have been thundering after one another around Knavesmire since 1731. But the sport can be traced back to the Romans' day, and took place in the Forest of Galtres and at Clifton Ings at various times. In November 1607 they even raced on the frozen River Ouse.

York Racecourse moved to its present home after flooding on the Ings caused a meeting to be cancelled. As its name suggests, Knavesmire was also pretty boggy, but careful drainage brought it up to scratch.

By 1736, York historian Francis Drake noted: "It is judged to be the best racecourse in England for seeing the diversion, the form of it being a horseshoe; the company in the midst and on the scaffolds stands can never lose sight of the horses."

Interestingly, this year's work to convert the horseshoe-shaped track to a circuit, ready for Royal Ascot, mirrored a similar scheme 160 years earlier. In 1845 the race committee decided to change the horseshoe into a circle, and the Ebor was reduced from two miles to 1 miles to avoid the first turn into the new cut.

York races have always been as much about the socialising as the sport, none more so than in the 18th century.

"York was the 'metropolis' of the turf in the olden days," wrote George Benson in his 1932 booklet York Race Meetings.

"For its race weeks people flocked to the city from all parts, the August meeting being the more important one. The nobility and gentry, and their ladies, joined the York Assemblies, subscribing one guinea each, and in the evenings resorted to the Assembly Rooms and Concert Rooms for dances, concerts and card parties."

Drama at the Theatre Royal was popular too, and cock fighting drew crowds to the cockpits on Bootham and elsewhere.

High society watched the 1739 meeting from 30 carriages parked on the course, each drawn by six horses, Mr Benson notes. By 1750, "the year in which the Jockey Club was formed, there were 307 subscribers to the Assemblies".

Among those attending that year were the Duke and Duchess of Ancaster, the Duke and Duchess of Gordon, and all manner of countesses, earls, colonels and honourables. They were to be accommodated more comfortably in 1754 when John Carr's grandstand was opened.

By the 19th century, it was a sport for all the people.

Mr Benson paints a colourful picture of race days. "The streets were crowded until the time for starting approached, when people wended their way to Knavesmire; tipsters urged on listeners the wisdom of purchasing their certainties.

"It was the day of the horse-drawn waggonettes, cabs, hansoms etc, filled with race-goers and which passed in rapid succession. All sorts of games of chance, such as the three card trick, were indulged in on 'course way', in the Mount Lane and on Scarcroft and Knavesmire."

Then as now, the races provided a boom time for York. The inns were packed. The long-gone Black Swan was a favourite of the aristocracy.

"Lord Glasgow and Admiral Rous stayed at the Black Swan in Coney Street, then kept by Mr Braithwaite. His lordship ordered, as was his usual custom, calf's liver and bacon for breakfast.

"Braithwaite sent all round the city but could not get any calf's liver, so went apologising to his lordship, who immediately replied, 'Then why didn't you buy a calf?'"

Racing Illustrated attended the Ebor race meeting in August 1896, and reported on the sporting drama in its issue the following month.

"The early hours of Wednesday morning were obviously too bright to last, and before noon heavy rain swept across the Knavesmire for upwards of an hour...

"The certainty of a small of a small field, the smallest on record, for the Ebor Handicap had little or no affect on the attendance, the number of excursionists from the northern towns being as great as ever."

That year's big race, "great in name only", ended in a dead heat between Posterity and Dingle Bay. A "run-off" was needed to settle the issue. In this Dingle Bay "got Posterity into trouble near the bend and then had matters all his own way, winning very easily at the finish".

Will we see similar excitement when history is made at York Racecourse this week? You can bet on it.

Photographs reproduced courtesy of www.imagineyork.co.uk, a Lottery-funded project based at York Reference Library Copies of published pictures can by obtained from Anne Wood or Helene Brown from our photosales department, on (01904) 567135, or via photosales@ycp.co.uk

Updated: 09:16 Monday, June 13, 2005