A SEA of umbrellas was deployed as the third day of the Dante Festival at York Racecourse was hit by heavy rain.

Prolonged and heavy rain last year led to the Ebor meeting being cancelled and yesterday was the first serious test of the racecourse’s new drainage system.

Happily, it passed.

Racecourse marketing manager James Brennan said: “People have now seen what the track is like when it rains and we’ve had another great day’s racing on it.

“We’re delighted about how the drainage performed now it’s had a proper test in pretty awful weather.”

Mr Brennan said it was always disappointing when the weather was poor, but the racecourse had erected extra shelters.

He said: “It’s always a shame when it rains as people spend a long time choosing their outfits and we’ve got large lawns and sunshine terraces so it’s nice when the sun comes out.

“But we’re based in York in a northern city so we’re obviously going to get rain sometimes. But people have still come and we’ve made the best of it. We put up extra covers on the champagne terrace and it’s actually been the warmest of the day of the festival.

“People come here with a mind to have a good time and they roared home four Yorkshire winners out of seven so it’s also been a cracking day for Yorkshire training.”