Ripon racecourse makes a belated start to its 2001 season with a meeting on Thursday.

After losing their scheduled first meeting on April 4 because parts of the course were waterlogged, the racecourse executive is hoping that the elements will be kinder and allow racing to start at 2.30 with the Sharow Maiden Stakes, a contest for two-year-olds supported by the European Breeders Fund.

One of Ripon's long-standing sponsors, Cocked Hat Farm Foods Ltd, return to Yorkshire's garden racecourse to support the afternoon's most valuable race, the Cocked Hat 'Cock O' The North' Handicap Stakes.

Contested by three-year-olds over one mile, the race title draws attention to the Northern Flat Jockeys' Championship, the Cock O' The North - also sponsored by Cocked Hat Farm Foods.

Last season's northern champion Kevin Darley was also the British champion jockey for the first time with 152 winners - the first northern-based national champion for 95 years.

The Betabet Handicap Stakes over the extended mile and a half - also a contest for three-year-olds - is the second of 18 races in Yorkshire this year (two at each course) supported by Betabet, the largest network of independent bookmakers in the UK.