Yorkshire Ebor
Best Moments at the York Ebor Festival
The North’s answer to Royal Ascot, the York Ebor Festival is one of the most exciting fixtures of the Flat Racing calendar, where the greatest horses of the season prove who is really the best around the Yorkshire track.
The meeting, which spans four days of top-class racing, has been the making of some superstars and never fails to generate lengthy conversations about the outcomes of the most prestigious races.
Here we will look back on the top three moments from the Ebor Festival in recent years, when some of the public’s favourite horses showed the extent of their class and ability.
Enable’s second consecutive win of the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks
John Gosden’s star mare, Enable, first won the Yorkshire Oaks – a 1m4f Group 1 race for fillies and mares aged three and over – in 2017 aged three by a mammoth five lengths. She was an extraordinary racehorse and truly in a class of her own.
A set-back in her fourth year ruled the filly out of the 2018 renewal, however, she would be back to defend her title the following summer.
In 2019, Enable won the Group 1 Eclipse and the Group 1 King George VI on her way to the Ebor Festival, showing she was still readily up to the task, although her winning distances were not as long as she had grown accustomed to as a three and four-year-old.
Despite this, the filly still jumped out of the stalls as favourite for the 2019 Yorkshire Oaks at 1/4. Aidan O’Brien’s Magical was second in the market, but nowhere near Enable at 4/1. Enable led the field of four, and looked uncontested until Magical stepped up to challenge her in the closing stages. Although O’Brien’s filly gave chase impressively, she was no match for Enable, who pulled away by two and three-quarter lengths to win in the final half furlong.
She would go on to win a further two races before being retired to stud.
Frankel’s win of the G1 Juddmonte International
Frankel, Sir Henry Cecil’s unbeaten son of Galileo, who earned himself legendary status by winning all of his fourteen career starts by a combined 76¼ lengths, only visited York once in his three-year racing career.
In his four-year-old season, Frankel had eaten up his rivals in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes, Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes and Group 1 Sussex Stakes before arriving at York, jumping off for the Juddmonte International as 1/10 favourite.
The colt raced calmly around the 10½ furlong track towards the back of the field on the outside and, when asked for effort with two furlongs to go, he barely broke a sweat when steaming clear of the field by a staggering seven lengths.
It took jockey Tom Queally over a minute to pull the colt up, which showed just how full of running Frankel was after his thirteenth victory.
The 2012 Juddmonte International was to be Frankel’s penultimate win; his last race was to be the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, which he won by a one and three-quarter lengths before retiring to stud to sire more legends of the Turf.
Stradivarius’ third consecutive win of the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup
Another superstar from the stable of John Gosden, Stradivarius ran 35 times in his six years on the racecourse.
A hugely popular horse, he always attracted big crowds and usually started his races as hot favourite due to his consistency and will to win.
The Group 2 Lonsdale Cup is a 2m½f race for horses aged three and over, which Stradivarius first won in 2018 by a length and half under Frankie Dettori, striding on well to win when he had some work to do with three furlongs left to travel.
The following year, with Dettori and Stradivarius’ partnership now solidified, the colt delivered the same late challenge, surging forward to win the Lonsdale for the second year running when 4/11 favourite.
In 2021, Stradivarius jumped out of the stalls at his shortest ever price for the Lonsdale – 4/6. Punters’ hearts will have been in their mouths as Andrew Balding’s Spanish Mission gave Stradivarius his greatest challenge in the race yet, with nothing between the two horses as they raced eachother home stride for stride.
Game as ever, the champion stayer stuck his neck out and won his third Lonsdale Cup by just a head. It was his last start at the Ebor Festival, although Stradivarius did visit York once again, to win the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup in 2022, at the end of which season he was retired to stud.
The winner of this year’s Lonsdale Cup will have extremely big shoes to fill.
