We don't want to be old hat or anything, but with the Ebor meet under starters orders at York Racecourse this week, what better time to look back at race days past?

Knavesmire was first used as a racecourse in 1731. But there has been racing in York much longer than that. When Roman Emperor Septimius Severus arrived in the city in 208 AD to suppress the rebellion in the north of the country, his train apparently included Arabian racecourses.

Our first two photos show the County Stand, first at the autumn meet of 1901, and then of crowds gathering at the spring meet in 1908. There have been many changes since these photos were taken, of course, but the scenes are still instantly recognisable.

This Thursday is Ladies Day - but the women who will be out parading in all their raceday finery would have been given a run for their money by the elegantly-dressed ladies in our third photo. It shows racegoers gathered for the Autumn meeting at Knavesmire in 1906. And it proves that while styles may come and go, class remains constant. The short gentleman in the polished boots standing in the centre of the photo certainly seems to think so, anyway.

We don't know yet who the big winners will be this week. But Polar Star was the winner of the Gimcrack Stakes held at Knavesmire in 1906. Our photo gives a rare glimpse of this magnificent horse.

Finally, we have evocative images of horses being paraded before a race in spring 1908 - and of a bookie at the races in about 1920. What was that we said about old hats?

  • Photos reproduced courtesy of the York Race Committee and City of York Council's Imagine York website, www.imagineyork.co.uk