Sunny romps to victory in England’s oldest horse race in Yorkshire Wolds

Sophie, from Skegness, who turns 40 on Tuesday, praised the nimble ex-hunter's sure-footedness on the stretches of Tarmacadam that interrupt the four-and-a-quarter mile course in the Yorkshire Wolds, near Market Weighton.

Temporary traffic lights stop the traffic allowing the 22-strong field to hurtle over the busy A164 close to the finishing post.

"You have to hit the road crossings hard," Sophie said.

"There's no pulling or they'll come down. He is an absolute dude, so sure-footed."

Sophie adds her footnote to an incredible piece of living history - a history that has played out every year since 1519 when the race began as a way for the "Squires to see who had the best horse".

King Henry VIII was on the throne when it began and in the more than 500 years since then there have been 22 monarchs and 58 Prime Ministers.

This year was the last race for Stephen Crawford, 70, who first took part in 1997, as a dare, six weeks after sitting on his first horse.

He said he was "over the moon" to have achieved the milestone "with all the bits still working".

During the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, he kept the race alive by walking the course with his horse, and again in 2018, when the race was cancelled and again in 2020 and 2021, during Covid, with John Thirsk.

This was because one of the quirky rules states that: "Should the race not be run then it shall cease."

Another is that the rider has to be a minimum 10 stone, and has to carry the extra weight on their own bodies - his granddaughter Jessica, who also took part, carried three stone of sand sewn into her jerkin.

Racing historian Chris Pitt, who travels up from Birmingham every year, said he far prefers the course to Cheltenham.

He said this year's field was "by far the classiest" with a dozen "proper racing thoroughbreds" taking part, including an ex racehorse which jumped at Aintree and was trained by Paul Nicholls and Venetia Williams. He said: "You can no longer turn up with an old hunter and expect to pick up a place or a prize."

Like the legendary Brigadoon that appears for only one day every century, within an hour of the race ending the crowds have melted away and the fields and tracks are once again deserted.

Retired farmworker Stephen Nendick who hass been coming all his life and looks after the parking puts the increasing popularity of the race down to social media.

"People travel from far and wide now. Years ago you'd get half a dozen horses, 10 was exceptional, now you can get 20 of more.

"It's tradition isn't it, Everything is disappearing. It's one of the few things left.

"But by 1pm you wouldn't know it had taken place," he added. "Where else is there anything else like this?"