Published on 18 Aug 2009.
It’s the York Ebor Festival this week and the meeting has been more keenly awaited than ever following last year’s complete washout. Fortunately there are no weather worries this time!
Now extended to four days of top-quality action, it’s the racing highlight in August and features Europe’s most valuable handicap, the £210,000 Ebor over a mile and three quarters on Wednesday.
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Aidan O’Brien is not usually a handicap specialist, but when they are as richly rewarded as this one he’s only too happy to get involved and the Irishman saddles ante-post favourite Changingoftheguard.
Ridden by stable jockey Johnny Murtagh, who has yet to win the race, the three-year-old bids to give O’Brien a second Ebor triumph and tries to become only the fourth horse in the last 20 years to carry 9st or more to victory.
But it’s not all about the Ebor, for there are Group races aplenty throughout the week. Sariska, the dual Classic heroine, bids for an Oaks treble in the Yorkshire version, while Kingsgate Native aims to prove himself king of the sprinters with a second Nunthorpe Stakes win in three years. |
