Go Racing In Yorkshire are gearing up for the start of the 2012 Flat campaign. Here STEVE CARROLL talks to Graham Orange about the season ahead.

THE Yorkshire Racing Summer Festival should be five star this year. Held from July 21 to 29, it will be the fifth time the tracks under the Go Racing In Yorkshire banner have come together to highlight all that is great about county racing.

Beginning at Ripon, the festival takes in meetings at Redcar, Beverley, Catterick, Doncaster, Thirsk and finishes with a high-quality card at Pontefract.

One of the highlights is the two-day meeting at York, on Friday evening, July 27 and Saturday, July 28, which takes in the popular Music Showcase Weekend.

This year, there are also plans to hold a stable visit at Robin Bastiman’s Cowthorpe yard on Tuesday, July 24, before taking the short trip to Wetherby for a tour of the racecourse and a question and answer session.

Graham Orange, Go Racing In Yorkshire spokesman, said: “Last year was our most successful racing summer festival with more than 100,000 attending and York, of course, played a major part in that.

“This is the fifth year of the festival.

“We continue to get great support from Racing For Change, Welcome To Yorkshire and SkyBet and, from start to finish, there is quality racing throughout the nine days.

“We’ve already had phone calls from people outside the county inquiring about the festival and it’s a week where we can showcase all of our racecourses to the community.”

For more information, log on to www.goracing.co.uk