York - have added fourth Group One

Mike Vince on changes to the Flat fixture list

By Mike Vince

Horse Racing

Wed February 19, 2025 · 1M ago

Mike Vince reacts to the upgrading of the Sky Bet City Of York Stakes and looks at why two other pattern races are now under threat.

The delight at York being able to add a fourth Group One to their Sky Bet Ebor Festival is understandable - now a Saturday card with the Strensall Stakes, Melrose, a Group One and then the small matter of the Sky Bet Ebor itself stacks up against the best - but there may be an element of surprise about the decision too.

The vibes had looked so positive a year or so ago. The 2023 renewal, run for record prize money, had been won by the favourite Kinross, a proven Group One performer for Ralph Beckett and Frankie Dettori, chased home by Group winners Audience and Sandrine.

But the European Pattern Committee said 'non'. France had protected the Prix de La Foret.

So to last August, with Kinross a non-runner and Lake Forest withdrawn after issues at the start, victory went to the complete outsider Breege for the (John and Sean) Quinns and Colin Keane, with the highest-rated horse Audience, now a Group One winner, only fourth in a race again run for record prize money.

The York team will never show it but if privately they'd wanted to audition for The Glums in the immediate aftermath then it would have been very much understood.

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But this time around the EPC backed them, they have their Group One to make it four in Ebor week and York’s response to the good news was typical - an extra £100,000 in prize money, meaning the race will be worth £600,000 this August, and with the expected news that the Knavesmire will also stage the Criterion Stakes, the feature of the race day they acquired from Newmarket at the end of June.

Await some incentives linking the two to be announced later.

For York it is yet another flagship, but the boom in Yorkshire racing has extended to another track, as Beverley is confirmed as the new venue of another race from Newmarket, the Listed Fred Archer Stakes which will be renamed.

In recent years all of the feature races on The Westwood have been over the unique five-furlong track - be it the two races for juveniles often used as a stepping-stone to Royal Ascot or the Beverley Bullet. The fact this is a race over a mile-and-a-half will be specifically welcomed.

But while the recent upgrades, which also include the QIPCO Long Distance Cup at Ascot - not before time - and the Juvenile on Champions weekend in Ireland are good news, two long-established races have been warned their status is at risk.

The Listed National Stakes run on Henry II and Brigadier Gerard Stakes night at Sandown in May and the Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury in September, currently a Group Two but living in the shadow of the Group Ones run over the same distance at Newmarket a week later, are the contests in question.

Mike Vince on changes to the Flat fixture list

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