Yes, it comes after Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood… but, if you’re from Yorkshire, Britain’s proudest county, it’s the York Ebor Festival which puts on the best racing in the world.

And, funnily enough, ‘the world’ often agrees: the centrepiece of the meeting – the G1 Juddmonte International run on the opening afternoon – has frequently been rated the Longines Best Race of the Year. The greatest horse of our (and possibly any) era – the imperiously relentless Frankel – sealed his reputation with a brilliant victory here at York… as did his forefather (20 generations back) Eclipse, the very first thoroughbred superstar.

The Ebor Festival has been a feature of northern life since 1846, the year two of its signature races were founded: the Gimcrack Stakes for two-year-old colts and geldings, and the all-aged Ebor Handicap over a mile and three quarters, Europe’s richest handicap and, these days, a win-and-you’re-in race for the G1 Melbourne Cup, run at Flemington in November. York racecourse has been around considerably longer, and moved to its current site on the common land of the Knavesmire – literally, the ‘marsh of the rascals’ – in 1731.

York is renowned for the fairness of the sport, run across a broad, totally flat expanse of turf with a generous run in of almost half a mile. Some call it the ‘Ascot of the north’; Yorkshire folk call Ascot ‘the York of the south’.