The Kiplingcotes Derby
Just outside Market Weighton, in the Yorkshire Wolds, the Kiplingcotes Derby – England’s oldest annual horse race – has been run every March since 1519, along farm tracks, country lanes and grass verges. The rules of the event stipulate that, if ever the race is not run one year, it can never be run again. This resulted in two occasions when a lone horse had to be led around the course because the race couldn’t take place; firstly during the great winter of 1947 and again during the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001.
I’ll tell you ‘bout a race that runs without a course
On a Thursday in the third month every year
Five centuries of gentry all a-testing of their horse
No comforts and no luxuries are here
No grandstand, no judges and no bookies
No betting ring or trackside view
No thoroughbreds on show, but you’re lucky, you know
Cos this race is old and true
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain
The runners have assembled down at the starting post
In the shadow of a hedgerow by the lane
Where Kiplingcotes Station pointed trippers to the coast
They’re gathered in their hundreds once again
They’re snorting in the air and they’re steaming
As they climb two hundred feet to Money Hill
The punters know it well, and they’re screaming, like hell
It’s the only way there is to beat the chill
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain
Thunder down to Enthorpe to cross a narrow track
The irons leave an arrow in the clay
A rider lashes whip, another gets it in the back
A free-for-all, a bun-fight, some would say
Then upwards once again on to Ashlack Wood
Clinging to the flank of Easthorpe Wold
It’s a tough old way to go, in the mud, and the snow
But fortune only smiles upon the bold
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain
The winning post’s in sight as they take the final rise
A long and weary slog without a pause
They’ve battled tooth and nail, hammer and tong, to claim the prize
Four miles of blood and fury to the cause
Let’s hear it for The Kiplingcotes Derby
They’ve been running it since 1519
For the galloping fools, and the hardy, it’s the jewel
A spectacle that has to be seen
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain
Come hell and high water, come wind and come rain
The Kiplingcotes Derby will remain