The Press Family Raceday is now in its 15th year. York Racecourse head of marketing James Brennan talks to STEVE CARROLL about the only Sunday race meeting on Knavesmire.

WHETHER it is the thundering hooves of racehorses crashing by that stirs the excitement, or simply the chance to spend an afternoon with champagne and ice cream in the summer sun, there has always been something for everyone at The Press Family Raceday.

York Racecourse's only Sunday meeting is now in its 15th year, and The Press has been alongside every step of the way. It is exactly what it purports to be - a day when family comes first.

A day when the traditional jacket and tie can be ditched. A day as much about Peppa Pig and the entertainment zone as it is about the top class thoroughbreds that take to the track.

Most of all, insists head of marketing James Brennan, it's a day which has the people of York at its heart.

"It has a very strong local feel," he said. "A lot of that comes from the long-term partnership with our local newspaper. It is, naturally, a day where - among the 20,000 crowd - you would expect the vast majority of them to have come from ten, 15 miles away or less.

"You see people arriving with picnics and they have clearly walked. That is fantastic."

From the very beginning, when the new Millennium brought the track's first Sabbath meeting, The Press Family Raceday dared to be different.

It saw children, mums, dads, grannies and granddads passing through the turnstiles - attracted by the face-painting, bouncy castles and, of course, the chance to see great horses going for glory.

With more than £100,000 in the prize pool and the Listed Garrowby Stakes the feature attraction, it is a race programme that now also demands attention from the higher profile trainers and jockeys.

"It is a unique day," Brennan added. "It's the only Sunday that we have. It is a consciously relaxed day and, right from the start, it was about welcoming new racegoers.

"It has come on. We like to think that we don't stand still and the facilities have changed over the 15 years that it has been running.

"The action on the track has changed too. It's more than £100,000 on offer. In the last two seasons, we have added a Listed race - a bit of Black Type.

"It is still a proper afternoon's racing. It is a chance for new racegoers and a chance for those making their way in the game to race on a big stage."

He continued: "We have seen the likes of Mince, a Royal Ascot winner, here and Ladies Are Forever, a dual Group 3 winner at York. That does mean that we have seen Ryan Moore, Frankie Dettori and some of the better known jockeys coming up to ride..

"Where The Press Family Raceday falls in our programme, after the absolute high quality of the Ebor Festival, to have a different pace to the day, to have the additional attractions, really works for us."