ASCOT chiefs are now very confident that York will host the Royal Meeting in 2005, racecourse bosses revealed.

Officials at the Berkshire track believe Knavesmire will be awash with "society" in 18 months, after announcing that an ambitious redevelopment scheme will not need to go before a public inquiry.

As tickets for this year's Royal Meeting went on sale at Ascot on Monday, course spokesman Nick Smith said Ascot was more than hopeful that its £180million redevelopment works would shortly be given the green light.

York Racecourse is on tenterhooks to hear when Ascot is given approval for its new stand and track realignment, to learn when it can officially say the Royal Meeting will come to the city.

Ascot chiefs had indicated the fiveday festival of racing would be held in York in 2005 or 2006, depending on the speed of the planning process.

But the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's decision to unanimously grant outline planning approval, coupled with a decision from the Government Office for the South East not to bring the plans to a public inquiry, has left Ascot officials confident the scheme can be given a final stamp of approval in front of the local council later this year - meeting its September shutdown date.

That means that Royal Ascot at York will most probably take place between June 14 and June 18, 2005.

Preparation work has already begun at Knavesmire, with plans to extend the track to allow the racecourse to hold some of Ascot's longer races.

Mr Smith said: "Officers at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are looking at the final application now.

"It is really a case of waiting for them to come up with their final approval. Obviously it doesn't now need to go to a public inquiry and we are very confident that we will gain approval and that the Royal Meeting will relocate to York in 2005."

07/01/04

Updated: 16:32 Friday, April 30, 2004