YORK Racecourse chief William Derby is crossing his fingers the weather won't ruin an epic showdown in the track's £850,000 Juddmonte International next week.

The mile-and-a-quarter jewel in the crown of Knavesmire's Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival, officially rated the best race on the planet, could play host a titanic clash between the Derby winner Golden Horn and the dual-Guineas victor Gleneagles on Wednesday.

Golden Horn, the Dante winner back in May, has already been given the green light to contest York's most prestigious race while Gleneagles' participation depends on him having his favoured good to firm ground.

But with as much as an inch of rain expected to lash the track today, Derby is hoping that the weather forecasts are not accurate and that the course's expensive drainage system - which has already saved a number of meetings since the Ebor was washed out seven years ago - once again comes to the rescue.

On the prospect of the world's highest rated horse and the globe's best miler going head-to-head at York, Derby, chief executive and clerk of the course, said: "It has all the makings of the race of the season in Britain, Europe and, possibly, the world.

"Golden Horn is the highest rated racehorse in the world and Gleneagles has won both (the English and Irish 2,000) Guineas and is the best three-year-old miler.

"To have those two taking each other on and then adding in The Grey Gatsby, last year's Dante and French Derby winner and the local hero, it could be a fantastic race.

"It's an absolutely mouth-watering contest and it is what we, as a racecourse, want to do - to bring the best horses in the world to race on Knavesmire."

Derby hailed the growing global nature of the four-day Ebor Festival, which runs from Wednesday until Saturday, citing the inclusion of the triple Group 1-winning Criterion in the Juddmonte and the American challenge from trainer Wesley Ward, who has entered Finnegan in the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Gimcrack Stakes and Acapulco in both the Pinsent Masons Lowther Stakes and the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes.

He added: "It's the first time we have had a real American challenge and representatives are coming next week from the top racing jurisdictions in Australia, America, Japan and Ireland.

"This is about York as a racecourse launching on a global scale and we are thrilled about the competition in prospect. Our least valuable races next week are worth £50,000 and, when you compare that to some of the other summer festivals, it sets us apart and gives local yards the prospect of having a winner at the Ebor Festival for a fantastic prize.

"We are really looking forward to next week."