On to a winner

Railfest: What a marvellous event... Nine days of celebrations attracting an estimated 60,000 visitors. Day after day, you could recognise them, parents and children excitedly converging on the city, trains packed with families pulling into York railway station and trekking off toward Leeman Road. It was one of York's biggest festivals yet.

Just in case no one has yet made the connection, the number of people who descended on York during the nine days of Railfest is the same as those expected every day for the five days of Ascot 2005. A total of 300,000 people.

Ascot at York is being heralded as a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, unless of course you're old enough to remember September 1945 when the St Leger, normally held in Doncaster, was run at York.

Coming hot on the heels of Victory in Japan, it was the first raceday to be held in peacetime, so it was quite a party despite wartime shortages of food fuel and more importantly, beer!

More than 200,000 racegoers flocked to the city. German prisoners-of-war were used to clear the Knavesmire around the course for use as a car park - a resource we don't have access to this time.

The authorities forbade parking in the streets surrounding the course and even the hours for local schools were changed to avoid congestion. The dual carriageway section of the road from York to Tadcaster was reopened, the northbound carriagway had been closed during the war and used as an army vehicle car park.

There were fears that the three-day meet would literally strip York bare of (still-rationed) food and drink. But the fears were unfounded.

The St Leger itself was won that year by Chamossaire, owned appropriately by Squadron Leader Stanhope Joel, with the King's Horse Rising Light taking second place! An absolute patriotic coup and the crowd went wild.

It was remarked that "York's St Leger Day of 1945 was the greatest racing pageant since the Roman Emperor Severus indulged in the sport within the ancient city in the second century AD."

The logistics for such an event are astounding and preparations are well under way.

Marketing Yorkshire for the event has begun in earnest, kicking off with perhaps the most important advertisement of the campaign, utilising a captive audience at Royal Ascot 2004 with a precious advertisement in the official brochure, an essential item for racegoers throughout the meeting.

The domain names www.ascotyorkshire.com and several variants on the same theme along with www.ascotyork.com are guiding potential visitors to inspected properties throughout the region. Work has begun in earnest.

But we are not just looking to fill York for the period of the meeting. It is essential that we exploit this opportunity for the long-term benefit of tourism in Yorkshire.

To pack the city to bursting point creating an atmosphere of overcrowding, raising prices and letting our standards fall through sheer pressure of numbers is not something we should allow to happen.

The truth is that, although a great opportunity for the city, Ascot 2005 also represents perhaps the most dangerous threat yet to Yorkshire's reputation.

We must ensure that the city welcomes these visitors with open arms and that greed does not force us into flooding the city with more people than our restaurants, pubs and wine bars can possibly handle.

A little overcrowding will be accepted, provided visitors are welcomed with open arms.

But we must realise not all of these visitors can be accommodated in York, benefits must be allowed to spread to business further afield. There will be more than enough custom to fill York's hotels, self-catering establishments, pubs, wine bars and restaurants. To run the risk of overcrowding the city to the point where the number of people staying cannot possibly eat out or get into a pub would be disastrous.

After all, what we really want is for these people to return, experience another side to Yorkshire, and to tell their families and friends what excellent places York and Yorkshire are.

Updated: 09:35 Tuesday, June 22, 2004