Is York ready to greet the Queen?

YORK Racecourse, the Monday after the May meeting. There is a deserted, almost abandoned feel to the place. The racetrack, a newly-completed oval, lies quiet under a mist of rain.

Litter-pickers are scurrying about the deserted stands picking up the detritus of discarded tickets and race programmes left over from the week before. The stands seem to echo and whisper, as if revisiting the ghosts of great races past.

A month from today, however, will see the beginning of an entirely new chapter in the 274-year history of this great racecourse. The stands then will be echoing to the roar of up to 60,000 punters, packed in to witness the five-day festival of racing, fashion and sheer pageantry. Royal Ascot, York will be off and running.

Racecourse chief executive William Derby admits that until the York Stayers Handicap race last Thursday - won by Irish jockey Mick Kinane on the 4-1 favourite Vicars Destiny - the nerves had been fluttering a bit.

That race, run over two miles and four furlongs, was the first time the new section of track, laid a year ago, had been fully put to the test.

Having already ridden it himself, Mr Derby was confident. The cambered bend gives a great sense of control, he says. "It keeps you in position and keeps you balanced."

But testing it is one thing. Letting 20 horses thunder around in full view of thousands of people is another.

"You believe you've got it right, but you never really know," says Mr Derby.

He need not have worried. The feedback from jockeys who rode in the York Stayers Handicap was uniformly positive.

"Mick Kinane was enthusing about how well it had ridden, and ex-champion jockey Kieron Fallon was saying how well it had ridden," says Mr Derby. "In fact all the riders - I spoke to most of them - all of them said it was a great bend."

It should contribute to what will be a great week. The quality of racing will be second to none. There will be no fewer than six Group 1 races over the five days of the event - and the racecourse has been fielding calls from trainers all over the world who have horses they hope to run in York.

The racing is only part of Royal Ascot. For royal-watchers, there will be a procession to open each of the five days of the meeting, and a Royal Enclosure to gawp at.

And for the fashionistas who want nothing more than the chance to dress up for the day in front of the eyes of the world, there is Ladies Day - Thursday June 16.

There are plenty of reasons to be proud that Royal Ascot is coming to York, Mr Derby says. Every day of the five-day meeting an estimated 60,000 people from all over the world are expected to flock to the racecourse - 10,000 of them to the Rails Enclosure set aside for local people.

"We want the people of York to feel involved in everything, not excluded from it," says Mr Derby.

Hundreds of journalists have been accredited to cover the event, with TV and press coverage of the city and of the races expected to be beamed to 60 countries.

To take full advantage of the unprecedented, worldwide exposure, York will be putting on its best face, with a Streets Alive festival planned for the city centre (see panel on right).

The benefits of the event will be felt long after Royal Ascot, York has been and gone, according to Mr Derby.

Planning permission permitting, the racecourse hopes to keep its new oval track, allowing it to host a greater range and quality of races in the future. It is also hoping many of the punters who come to York for the first time for Ascot will be so impressed they will return.

The same applies for the city at large, says Mr Derby. The week-long event offers a chance to show off the city.

Given his obvious enthusiasm, it must rankle that Royal Ascot in York isn't being anticipated with the same delight by everybody.

There are plenty of York people who are looking forward to it. But there are grumbles, too, about the traffic, about York being invaded by southern toffs, about how the whole event isn't going to mean much for ordinary York folk.

"It is understandable, if you're not a racing fan, to question how the event is going to impact on you," says Mr Derby. "But it is only five days. Traffic plans have been developed (see panel) to keep the traffic flowing, and as long as people plan their day, they should not be inconvenienced."

As to those who grumble the event is nothing to do with them, there is a story he likes to tell.

"It's for the man who says 'I'm a fridge-maker, I don't like racing, so what on earth has it got to do with me?'" he says.

"I say well, hotels will need extra fridges for all the people that are going to stay. And there will be extra staff at the hotels, and maybe some of them will buy a new fridge. The point is that it filters through. There are likely to be an extra 250,000 people visiting the city, and there may be an immense impact on the background economy."

And what does he say to the likes of Viscountess Gormanston, who reputedly remarked that Ascot had gone 'tacky' this year because it was coming north to York?

He gives a slight smile. He doesn't want to get drawn into the north versus south business, he says. "Royal Ascot York is not about the differences between Berkshire and York. It will be a celebration of York and what York and Yorkshire have to offer."

Hopefully it will. But, with a month to go and many of the temporary stands, pavilions and marquees needed to accommodate the 60,000 visitors a day still to be erected, is he at all nervous?

No, he says - just excited, especially after the success of last week's meeting. "There have been two years of planning and now it is four weeks away. It is tremendously exciting, and we're just looking forward to it."

The traffic plans

Bill Woolley is confident. Even if a photograph in last week's Evening Press appeared to show traffic at a standstill as racing began for the May meeting, City of York Council's assistant director for environment and development services believes traffic planners have got York Ascot spot on.

Last week's traffic wasn't that bad, he insists. And it was in any case little indication of how traffic will flow during the week of Royal Ascot: for the simple reason that almost none of the Ascot traffic management measures were in place last week.

The measures designed to keep traffic flowing during Ascot include:

A coach and taxi one-way 'loop' to help ferry punters from the railway station

Tadcaster Road closed to outbound traffic below the Tesco roundabout

Traffic lights at the Sim Balk Lane junction switched off to allow incoming traffic to move more freely

Road signs beginning as far away as the M62 and M1 to direct race traffic to the designated racegoers' car park

Parking restrictions around the racecourse and South Bank to reduce congestion

The only Ascot measure tried out last week, however, was the set of temporary traffic lights at the junction of Knavesmire Road and the Mount, designed to ensure traffic can get in and out of the racecourse area as smoothly as possible.

The rest of the plans were not trialled because the pattern of traffic at Ascot will be different from that at a normal York race meeting, says Mr Wooley.

Normally, there are about 6,000 cars attending York races on any one day - compared to about 11,000 or 12,000 expected for each day of Ascot.

The key difference, however, is that traffic managers will know in advance exactly where most of the Ascot traffic will be going, and where racegoers will be parking.

Racegoers were being notified that if they didn't book parking in advance, they would not be able to park.

Information will be sent our with their tickets, telling them exactly where they are to park, and giving directions as to how they should get there.

The aim of the system, says Mr Woolley, is to try as far as possible to keep the race traffic separate from the rest of York's traffic. A special edition of the council's Your City newsletter will also be going out to every household in the city to ensure everyone in York knows how the system will work, and which areas to avoid.

"We have planned for this more comprehensively than we have ever planned for any large event before," says Mr Woolley.

"For that reason I'm very confident that we will have done everything possible to mitigate traffic congestion."

Streets Alive

York aims to use Ascot week to cement its growing reputation as a 'city of festivals'. From June 11-19 there will be something happening in the city centre all day, every day.

Events planned include:

Interactive street theatre, including a circus skills workshop

Artists, human statues, and a chance for everyone to help create a huge piece of pavement art in the city centre.

A History Live event on Monday June 13 featuring Medieval knights, Vikings, Roman warriors and Civil War characters.

A 'Made in Yorkshire' arts and crafts market, and the popular 'Deliciouslyorkshire' market displaying Yorkshire's most mouth-watering food and drink.

Updated: 09:15 Tuesday, May 17, 2005