The unique experience of Kiplingcotes Derby - England's oldest and most eccentric horse race

Coach parties of spectators turned out for the 506th running of the race near Market Weighton which was established when Henry VIII was still married to Catherine of Aragon.

It is believed local gentry wanted a gruelling equestrian challenge on which they could gamble, while also testing their horses ahead of the flat racing season.

Its early editions are said to have featured numerous races and ended with a violent free-for-all, involving whips and crops, with spectators and riders battling to carry off a ball, but in the centuries that followed rules have been formed specifying “every rider that layeth hold of any of the other riders or striketh any of them shall win no prize”.

Standing on the back of a trailer before the entrants trotted to the starting line, event trustee Clare Waring read some of its 15 rules, which include that riders must weigh at least ten stone, with extra weights having to be carried on the person, rather than in saddle cloths as is usual in modern races.

The final rule of “should the race not be run then it shall cease” has led to single horses being led through snow drifts to ensure the event’s continuance.

The race always takes place on the third Thursday in March and anyone who shows up with a horse by 11am at the finish line and pays the £4.25 entry fee is eligible.

The winner receives an impressive trophy and £50, but in a quirk that’s typical of the event, the runner-up usually receives a greater sum, providing there are more than 12 entrants. This year’s running attracted some 18 runners, albeit of varying abilities, with names such as Ed, Jet, Merlin and Archie. There’s no age limit for the horses or riders and some 13 of the entrants were female riders.

The course, which starts in the village of Etton beside an ancient stone post some 160ft above sea level, is linear and involves riding along a broad grass verge, deeply rutted by farm vehicles in places. Runners climb 368ft over Goodmanham Wold and after crossing a 12ft wide bridge over the disused York to Beverley railway line the course drops 303ft to a green lane created to enable the race to continue after the enclosure of fields in the 1800s.

After the riders complete a lengthy uphill drag, rising to 438ft above sea level, traffic on the A163 is brought to a standstill as the runners cross the busy route as they near the finish post, which remains near the site of farm labourers cottages used to rub down the horses after the race.

While entrants often have to contend with deep mud on the green lanes, the going was good for the latest running. Watching the final climb, one former entrant from Biggin, near Tadcaster, said: “You have to look after your horse. It’s very rutty, not like being on a racecourse.” Another spectator, from Hull, said he had simply wanted to experience the Kiplingcotes Derby.

Trustee Clare Waring, who deputised as both the clerk of the course and the official starter, said she had been helping with the race for four decades.

She said: “It’s the tradition of it, it’s being going on that long you don’t want to see something like this end, even though they do make things a bit harder.”

On weighing in duties, four times winner John Thirsk, said as spectators gathered on the lane before the start to place their bets with a Doncaster-based bookmaker, a courier van driver had insisted on being able to get past. He said: “I told her ‘you might be a courier, but this is a 500 year-old horse race. You’ve got no chance!’”

After the race, Skegness jockey Sophie Faulkner-Smith, said she felt relief having being handed the notoriously unlucky number. She said: “It’s taken me three years to get here. Broke my collar bone one year, smashed my leg last year – it’s third time lucky.

"Sunny was hot, he boiled over before he got there he was so excited. I thought I’d jump him off in front just so I’ve got a bit of control over the road. He’s a star, he’ll stay all day. I couldn’t pull him up in the end. He was given to me by one of the whips in our local hunt. He came to me free, nobody wanted him.”

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