York Guides

Julie Hemmings (Yorkshire Post)
YORK'S smartest race meeting will be extra glamorous this year following the success of Royal Ascot.

More space for champagne and better views of the action on the racetrack will be among the changes at the Knavesmire from tomorrow for the Ebor festival.

Royal Ascot's unique trip north, while its home course in Berkshire undergoes a massive £185m revamp, brought bigger crowds in June than York is used to, with Gold Cup Day – Ladies' Day – attracting 50,000 spectators and setting a new course record.
New for the three-day Ebor – usually the highlight of the year at York – will be a champagne lawn next to the bandstand outside the weighing room; more viewing space around the parade ring;; and more bars and catering areas on the southern lawns.
In line with the management's meticulous eye for detail, some changes are tiny. York chefs have even adopted from an Ascot colleague a more attractive way of presenting sliced tomatoes for cheese and tomato sandwiches.
Community singing, which traditionally rounds off each day at Royal Ascot, has not been ruled out as a future Ebor fixture, but will not feature this week.
A new location for the Ebor Winners Enclosure; two more large screens, one overlooking the parade ring and the other in the courtyard; and more information in the racecard, are among other changes which already had been planned for this year's Ebor.
While anticipated Ebor crowds are smaller than for Royal Ascot at York, some elements of the traffic management plan for the Royal meeting will also be in place this week.
These include restrictions giving access to the course only from the A64 and not from any other direction; partial temporary closures of some local roads; and
some roads running one
way.
n More information is available on the council's website at www.york.gov.uk or from the council's race traffic information helpline on 01904 552200.
See this week's Yorkshire Post for full coverage of the Ebor.