The Duke of York is the title traditionally bestowed upon the monarch’s second son, or the second in line to the throne. The future George VI was the Duke of York, as he was a second son, but he became King in 1936 his older brother Edward VIII chose to abdicate in order to marry divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.
KEMPTON
The Duke of York Stakes was a valuable contest first run at Kempton in October 1892, worth £5,000. The man who would become George V was “promoted” to Duke of York status, second in line to the throne, when his older brother died that year aged only 28. He took the throne in 1910 when his father Edward VII died.
The quality of the fields did not match the money on offer and by 1895 the Kempton executive had dropped the prize money to £2,000. It became a handicap in 1921. After WW2 it was spasmodically present until getting established from 1952-60 when run in May and confined to three-year-olds. The name of the race was changed in 1961 to honour the venerable recently-deceased trainer Atty Persse (qv).
YORK
York introduced its ducal race at its Ebor meeting in 1895. The mile and a half contest for three-year-olds was a potential St Leger trial. Unfortunately one correspondent thought “the six competitors were a sorry lot.” It achieved a fair standard, though, as its distance fluctuated between a mile and a mile and a half. In 1950 it was relaunched as a six-furlong handicap at the May meeting. It has steadily been upgraded since 1968 and is now a Group 2. In 1922 it was renamed the 1895 Duke of York to emphasise its history and to distance it from the adverse publicity surrounding the present Duke.