William Derby and Anthea Leigh at York

Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York Racecourse to start on good-to-firm ground

Horse Racing

Sun August 16, 2026 · 2M ago

There are showers in the forecast ahead of the Sky Bet Ebor Festival to the delight of York's Chief Executive and Clerk of the Course William Derby.

Speaking to Luck On Sunday on Racing TV, Derby said: "The heatwave is over, the last hot day we had was Friday.

"It's much cooler, cloudier and looks a little unsettled for the early part of the week; showers around which is a welcome relief to all farmers and trainers in the country.

"We'd rather not have it rain on the racecourse during the raceday but a few showers before racing and then a mixture of sunshine and showers during the week.

"There is a rainband coming through the region on Friday [last] through to Tuesday which we're looking like getting a few millimetres before the meeting gets underway, then showers on Wednesday and Thursday for racing but looks brighter towards the end of the week at this long range outlook."

Explaining the difficulties that Derby and his team have faced in this most unusual of summers, he said: "We've had only 17 millimetres since the 19th June, the last time it rained here was 0.5mm on the 5th August. A real water deficit. We've been irrigating through that period from our boreholes, overnight irrigation which we find works best on the Knavesmire and we've had about 17 days which have been over 25 degrees."

Derby and Anthea Leigh, the raceday clerk of the course, are happy with conditions as they stand with the former continuing: "We have ceased irrigation for the moment; we'll review that on a daily basis but Anthea and I are really happy with the racing surface as it is at the moment.

"We're not seeing any significant rain at this stage beyond that rainband on Monday evening so let's just play it day by day.

"A mixture of good-to-firm and good at the moment and it looks like a great racing surface to see these stars perform on."

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