York’s Ebor Festival takes centre stage this week and starts today and runs through to Saturday, into a Bank Holiday weekend.
Poet’s Word – a worthy favourite
Unlike many other multi-day racing festivals, Ebor starts with the biggest race of the event.
Eight classy colts who have won 40 races between them, including 12 Group 1s, and accumulated more than £15 million in prize-money, enter the stalls for the 47th running of the Gr1 Juddmonte International this afternoon.
It is another chance to see the how the Classic generation fare against their elders.
Roaring Lion and Saxon Warrior dominated the finish to the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown last month but this time they have Poet’s Word to worry about.
Sir Michael Stoute’s five-year-old has been the surprise package of the summer so far, cracking the Cracksman code in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and gunning down Crystal Ocean close home in the King George. He is now rated 130 and deserves to be favourite.
Poet’s Word has amassed £2,722,891 in prize-money but, surprisingly, he is not the highest earner in the race. Not even close. Thunder Snow is Mr Moneybags, the Dubai Cup winner with £6,302,421 in his bank account.
Seven of the eight runners have already won Grade 1s, the exception being Thundering Blue, who is a course specialist with form figures of 121 at the venue.
You can back the Irish Derby winner Latrobe at 16-1. That tells you all you need to know about the quality of the Juddmonte International.
Another poser in advance of the culmination on Saturday is over the participation of market leader Stratum in the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap.
Declarations for Saturday will be announced on Thursday morning before York’s Ladies Day takes centre stage in the afternoon with the Yorkshire Oaks and Lowther features for fillies and mares.
The Racing Post reports that with York’s prestige Sky Bet Ebor Handicap raised in value to £500,000 for the first time on Saturday, a place in the starting line-up is likely to be more coveted than ever.
That has left Stratum, the Tony Bloom-owned winner of the inaugural JLT Handicap and the sponsors’ current 7-2 favourite, having to rely on other horses not being declared to be guaranteed a start.
- www.racingpost.com
