Sky Bet Go Racing in Yorkshire Summer Festival

York Racecourse brings the Sky Bet Go Racing in Yorkshire Summer Festival to the Knavesmire on Friday 24 July, the sole evening meeting of the season and the climax of the Summer Festival. It's a double bill that runs late into the night, with racing from 5.32pm and live music from Craig David and Tom Grennan taking over once the horses have finished.

The racing card is built around the Sky Bet Go Racing in Yorkshire Summer Festival Stakes, a Class 3 handicap. It's joined by the Sky Bet Jump Jockeys Nunthorpe, a Class 4 handicap, and the Sky Bet York Stakes, a Group 2. The three races run throughout the evening, so there's plenty to follow before the music kicks in.

If you're not usually one for the form, it helps to know where you're heading. The course is known as the Knavesmire, and it's been running since 1731. It's an independent track with no shareholders, so everything it makes goes back into prize money, the facilities, and the racing itself. It's one of the finest flat racing venues in the world, with a wide galloping track and a capacity of around 40,000. The National Association of Racing Staff rated it the top racecourse in Britain in 2025, and that same year it won the Grounds Management Association Professional Horseracing Grounds Team of the Year.

This is the Summer Festival, but the course's biggest moment comes later in the year with the Sky Bet Ebor Festival in August. That's home to the Ebor, Europe's richest flat handicap at £500,000, and the Group 1 Juddmonte International, the richest race ever run on the Knavesmire at £1.5m. The course also hosts four Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races, which earn automatic starting berths in the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland. For the 24 July meeting, the first race is at 5.32pm, with Craig David and Tom Grennan playing on afterwards.