THE tale of a legendary two-horse race at York's Knavemire was being remembered today on the first day of the Ebor race meeting.

One of today's highlights was set to be the 51st Great Voltigeur Stakes, a race named after the horse Voltigeur, whose tail is an exhibittion in York Racecourse's museum.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Voltigeur's famous clash with The Flying Dutchman, and today's Great Voltigeur Stakes looked likely to see all 18 horses entered being able to trace their bloodlines back to the two stallions.

The "Great Match" between the two horses, back in 1851, attracted a crowd of about 150,000.

The race was arranged to settle an argument, as at that time the two Yorkshire-trained colts were great rivals.

Voltigeur was owned by the Earl of Zetland and trained by Robert Hill, of Richmond. The Flying Dutchman was Lord Eglinton's star and was trained by Mr Forbert, of Middleham.

Voltigeur had won both the Derby and the St Leger of 1850; successes achieved by The Flying Dutchman a year earlier, and two of the greatest jockeys of the age were booked for the contest, Charles Marlow for The Flying Dutchman and Nat Flatman for Voltigeur.

In the event, although Voltigeur started off in the lead, The Flying Dutchman caught up and eventually won by a length.

A century and a half later, at the five-day stage for the Great Voltigeur Stakes this year, all 18 horses entered could trace their bloodlines back to one or both of the horses. The race today also looked likely to feature a direct descendant of each horse.

Halawan is Voltigeur's great x 12 grandson and Demophilos is The Flying Dutchman's great x 13 grandson.

- Firefighters were called to a blaze at a mobile betting shop at York Racecourse last night.

The shop was mounted on an articulated trailer and the fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault, left it with fire and smoke damage.

Updated: 11:28 Tuesday, August 21, 2001