Derby stays on at York

WILLIAM DERBY has played down suggestions of a potential 'draw bias' at York after confirming that he will remain clerk of the course at the top racecourse.

It had been claimed that Derby would be replaced by Anthea Morshead, the daughter of Yorkshire's former Gold Cup-winning trainer Peter Beaumont.

However, Derby has stressed that he will remain as both clerk and chief executive at York, one of the city's top businesses in its own right, with Morshead taking over the assistant clerk's role that has been filled by James Hutchinson for the past 20 years.

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"James has been a fine servant to York for 20 years and has always offered me great support," said Derby

"I respect his decision to step down at York so that he can manage increased responsibilities elsewhere."

The appointment of an experienced assistant – Morshead runs Cartmel, Musselburgh and Kelso – affirms the York policy of combining the role of clerk of the course and chief executive.

"We believe it is right to have the same person with ultimate responsibility for both the racing and commercial operations at York and that man is William," said York chairman Nicholas Wrigley.

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"We support him on racedays with a skilled assistant. William has just led the team through another successful Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival with its record investment in prize money, record attendances and awards from both the Racegoers Club, Racehorse Owners Association and last year's Neil Wyatt Award for the racing surface.

"I know he is looking forward to working with Anthea."

Derby was delighted that the overall attendance at last week's Ebor festival was one per cent up on the 2009 figure.

He has also noted the comments of some, including Middleham trainer Mark Johnston, who were unhappy that last week's going appeared to favour horses drawn on the stands' side.

"It looked terrible and you have to think there is something wrong when they choose to come right across to the stands rail in virtually every race," wrote Johnston on his blog.

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"I regret not instructing, at least, one of my riders to try the far rail but it was a very hard call to make as no runner which tended towards the far side won. It made for messy racing and more than a few hard luck stories.

"I cannot help but look at my, desperately declining strike rate at York (from leading trainer to 'also-ran' in about six years) and wonder if the ground is a factor.

"It now seems that, even when the ground is fast, you need a horse that handles 'cut' and even the all-weather specialists seen to fare better than the true firm ground horse."

However, Derby said that he had received no complaints from jockeys – a fact that Johnston concurred with.

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He also said that the finish of the Great Voltigeur, won by Frankie Dettori's St Leger prospect Rewilding, was contested on the far side of the track.

"A trend developed on the stand side which rather perplexed us," he added.

"No-one can put their finger on it, it's how the races panned out."