They should have been running the Ebor yesterday, the Knavesmire packed, happy and sunlit for Yorkshire's big racing day out. In desolate contrast, contractors were dismantling the infrastructure of a phantom meeting to a backdrop of head-scratching and squabbling over how best to rescue its mislaid jewels.

The upshot - a triumph for being flexible in adversity - is that Newmarket's July course will stage an 11-race card tomorrow, including two of York's refugee group ones. The third, the showpiece Juddmonte International, will be run on the same course on Saturday. A renamed approximation of the Ebor will be added to Newbury tomorrow.

Little about Britain's fickle climate can surprise any more but there is still cause for bewilderment in a four-day racing festival being washed away in the middle of August. At noon yesterday, it fell to York's chief executive, William Derby, wearing the haggard look of a man who had not slept for several days, to confirm the worst. “The course is unraceable, with no prospect of recovery,” he said.

In drawing stumps without, so to speak, a ball bowled, Derby was merely conducting the preliminaries to a lengthy bout of negotiations. York was to have staged three group one races, four group twos and the most valuable Flat handicap in Europe. In the bad old days, they would all have been filed under lost opportunities but racing takes a more enlightened approach now.

Many people wanted a say in their potential rescheduling, some more insistently than others. Sponsors, racecourses, television and the Levy Board had to sing in concert. Trainers - at least the key ones - had to be consulted. Hence, it was late afternoon before Ruth Quinn, director of racing at the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and referee of these debates, emerged from her temporary command centre in the groundsman's hut with a skeleton plan.

Newmarket, who would otherwise have been hosting a low-key end to the summer season on the leafier of their two tracks, have been the big winners in the reshuffle. Tomorrow's marathon card will include the Darley Yorkshire Oaks and the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes. Aidan O'Brien has intimated that he will still send his key runners including, crucially, Duke Of Marmalade for the International on Saturday. Whether Jim Bolger responds with New Approach, recreating the dream duel, remains in doubt.

Much the most contentious issue was the Ebor itself. In the view of the sponsor, totesport, the race belongs at York and means little elsewhere. Quite right, too. Channel 4, however, played hardball, indicating that a Friday package at Newbury and Newmarket would be of interest to them only if the Ebor, with its huge betting appeal, was part of it.

Discussions continued between Trevor Beaumont, chief executive of totesport, and Andrew Franklin, Channel 4's producer, but both held their ground. The curious compromise was a £100,000 handicap, over the same trip and sponsored by totesport but now called the Newburgh, original place-name of Newbury.

Goodwood have also picked up a plum race and the Ladbrokes Great Voltigeur is added to their Celebration Mile card on Saturday. All the rescheduled races will revert to their six-day entries and Jon Ryan, director of communications at the BHA, said: “There are wonderful positives out of this as to what people can do in a crisis - and this is a crisis.”

It certainly is in York itself, where the city's tourism turnover has taken a massive hit this week. So, too, has morale at this splendid racecourse, where everyone wears the look more associated with bereavement. “We feel the pain,” Derby said. “We worked very late last night and again from very early this morning but it was hopeless. The only good thing is that we'll be starting our drainage project two days early.”