IT was the race of the century, the showdown of all time. It was known in horseracing circles as “the Great Match”, and it was so great that it drew the largest crowd at York’s Knavesmire – up to 150,000 people – since murderer Eugene Aram, guilty of killing his co-conspirator in the great Knaresborough shoe swindle, had been publicly executed there 91 years earlier.
It was held on May 31, 1851, and it pitted The Flying Dutchman of Middleham against Voltigeur of Richmond, the two greatest racehorses of the day, and although Voltigeur lost, he still has a grand gate in a triumphal arch in his honour to this day.