There’s no shortage of prestigious Group action this weekend and yet York’s Sky Bet Ebor on Saturday will underline how few things engage popular appeal more than a top handicap.
The fact that York’s festival comes under the Ebor banner reflects the race’s central role. So too does a bumper representation of 10 Irish runners that make up almost half the 22-strong field. There have been eight Irish-trained winners in the last 16 years, including three of the last four.
Such a pull is despite the Irish Cesarewitch trumping the Ebor’s old tag of Europe’s richest handicap. Indeed, it isn’t even the richest prize on Saturday’s York programme.
A massive pot of £665,000 (€770,000) is up for grabs in the preceding Group One City Of York Stakes. It is the first all-aged seven-furlong race in Britain or Ireland with top-flight status. Longchamp’s Prix de la Foret was the only previous Group One at the distance in Europe.
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Aidan O’Brien runs his filly Exactly against 10 opponents topped by the top-class miler Rosallion. Forced to miss the Marois with a setback, Richard Hannon’s star drops to what history shows can be a specialist trip.
Up against him are Qirat, the 150-1 pacemaker who beat him in the shock of the season in last month’s Sussex Stakes, as well as the progressive Never So Brave. Seven furlongs, though, might prove an ideal proposition for the French hope Maranoa Charlie.
Different distance priorities apply in the Ebor, where Willie Mullins has three hopes of securing a third success in the race.
Various routes to Ebor glory have been taken over the decades but victory in a Galway maiden hurdle for an ex-Polish runner will be a new one. Mullins’s status in long-distance races, though, has helped turn Hipop De Loire into a clear market favourite.
There’s also the evidence of last year’s Ebor when Hipop De Loire was palpably unlucky when fifth behind Magical Zoe. Colin Keane endured a torrid passage up the straight and will be keen to try his luck again.
“Hipop looked very unlucky last year and we’ve planned to get him back here in one piece and in good form,” Patrick Mullins reported. “He had a good confidence booster in Galway. Obviously, he’s got plenty of weight, but it looks like he has everything – he just needs to get the rub of the green he didn’t get last year.”
Henry de Bromhead won last year and relies on his Royal Ascot winner Ascending this time, while Jim Bolger puts first-time cheekpieces on Fleetfoot. Both Joseph and Aidan O’Brien are represented, as is Johnny Murtagh, who has also twice won the Ebor.
The Group One focus switches to Deauville on Sunday where O’Brien’s Gstaad will try to step up to the top level in the €350,000 Sumbe Prix Morny.
Forced to miss the Phoenix Stakes, the impressive Coventry Stakes winner is up against a handful of opponents, only one of which is French. It reflects overseas dominance of the six-furlong heat that O’Brien has helped with five previous victories, including Whistlejacket a year ago.
US trainer Wesley Ward has won the Morny three times – Campanelle (2020), Lady Aurelia (2016) and No Nay Never (2013) – and relies on the maiden winner Outfielder in a race due off at 2.50pm Irish-time.
Gstaad isn’t the only Royal Ascot winner in the line-up. The Albany heroine Venetian Sun has since won again when beating Thursday’s Lowther winner Royal Fixation at Newmarket. Her trainer Karl Burke landed the Morny himself with Unfortunately in 2017.
Sunday’s other Deauville feature, the Prix Jean Romanet, is a rare European Group One yet to be won by O’Brien. He looks to have a prime shot at changing that with Bedtime Story.
The French Oaks runner-up subsequently failed to land a blow behind her stable companion Whirl in Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes when circumstances piled up against her. Slowly away from a flag start, she took a keen hold and on ultra-testing conditions not surprisingly faded to fourth.
Bedtime Story is one of just two from the Classic generation taking on their elders in the 10-furlong contest worth €400,000 and off at 4pm. Cinderella’s Dream lines up on the back of a Falmouth Stakes victory and represents Godolphin.
