York Racecourse: Why historic Yorkshire racecourse is aiming to be a big hit in Japan
After a season featuring a string of smashed records and accolades, York Racecourse’s team is not about to rest on its laurels. Stuart Minting reports.
Despite being nearly 6,000 miles from Knavesmire, work to promote the brand of the Yorkshire track which has hosted racing for some 294 years is crucial, says its long-serving chief executive.
William Derby, who is also York Racecourse’s course clerk, was last weekend attending the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse, one of the world’s leading’s races, alongside the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
One of the purposes of the trip was to cement York’s relationships with the key connections in Japan so they consider running more of their horses on Knavesmire.
Another is to attract horse racing tourists, so a display about York Racecourse has been installed at the Tokyo venue.
William said: “It was an incredible experience with 80,000 people and a great race with a European horse, Calandagan, winning for the first time in 20 years, having come second in last year’s Juddmonte International at York.
“The third placed horse, Danon Decile, has run with us at this year’s Juddmonte International, so there was lots of York connections.”
William said Japan’s most prestigious fixture was “very focused on racing itself, the horses and the betting”.
"There’s not what we would know of the fashion or food and drink elements of racedays”, he said, adding: “They are very reverent to the thoroughbred itself and there’s a hushed experience around the parade ring. It’s lovely to see.
"Rather like Yorkshire racegoers they love their good horses and you get that sense that they really appreciate seeing the best horses.
"You get that at York and Yorkshire racecourses maybe more than elsewhere in the UK.”
So keen is the racecourse to develop its Japanese links that it put on a special offer through the UK Japanese Embassy earlier this year targeting ex-pats living in the UK.
About 100 came under the offer, while other Japanese people flew over for the race which has seen two Japanese runners in the last two years.
William said: “The Japanese have all heard of York Racecourse and obviously being currently the highest rated race in the world, that’s important to them and their racing and breeding industry.
“We hope that the global reach of York and Ebor applies. We had an Australian winner of the Coolmore Nunthorpe.
"We’re trying to build on that global racing stage, very much helped by having the world’s best race twice in the last five years.”
Earlier this year, York’s flagship race the Juddmonte International, was named the best race in the world by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.
William said: “Obviously we had Royal Ascot at York in 2005 so we’re continuing that upwards trajectory as a worldwide racecourse.”
Offering a record prize money of more than £12m this season, Knavesmire attracted a record number of horses to race on the track, meaning an average of field size of 12.6 per race, the highest at a British racecourse.
William said: “We’re thrilled with the average field size. We’re here to put on the most compelling competitive racing and although the racehorse population across the country has gone down a bit we’ve attracted more horses than ever before to come and race at York.”
This year also saw 12 per cent more racegoers than last season. That growth was seen across 15 racedays, most of which were blessed by sunny weather.
Reflecting on the season, William said his highlight had been running the SkyBet City of York on the Saturday of the Ebor Festival as a Group One race for the first time.
He said: “It was a plan that had been almost a decade in the making, promoting the race, investing in it and attracting good horses.
"Rather like a football team you have to get promoted from one grade to the next, you have to win your division and we had three successive promotions over that decade.
"To have Group One races on each of the four days of the Ebor Festival was very important for us. It was a fantastic race on the Saturday and fully justified the Group One status. We were hugely proud of that.”
He said he was also pleased about the reaction of racegoers to first full season of having the £8m Bustardthorpe development, following Queen Camilla opening it last year. Recent months have seen the redevelopment win awards for its outstanding environmental credentials.
He said: “It had a really great buzz. You never know when you’re designing things with architects what the atmosphere of a place will be like. It really generated its own atmosphere.”