Five horses to consider for the Sky Bet Ebor at York Racecourse

By Ian Ogg

14:56 · WED August 07, 2024

We nominate five horses for your short-list for the Sky Bet Ebor at York on Saturday, August 24.

The Sky Bet Ebor is the richest flat handicap run in Britain and the winner gains an automatic entry for the Melbourne Cup, adding a layer of intrigue with last year's scorer Absurde going on to finish seventh at Flemington.

Trained by Willie Mullins, Absurde is one of five Irish-trained runners to have won the Ebor in the last 10 years and one of the Closutton handler's entry, Belloccio, sits at the top of the ante-post market alongside compatriot Harbour Wind, trained by Dermot Weld who was the first northern hemisphere trainer to win the Melbourne Cup.

Belloccio has had only two starts for Mullins, winning a maiden hurdle at Punchestown before reverting to the flat to win the Copper Horse Handicap at Royal Ascot, a run that took him a little bit of time to get over. Only 5lbs higher in the weights, it's no surprise to see him towards the top of the betting. Harbour Wind has yet to finish outside the first two in six starts and, after winning his reappearance, Weld revealed that the Melbourne Cup was 'in my thoughts' for the four-year-old whose dam is a half-sister to the smart stayer Forgotten Rules.

Here are five other entries on the short-list for the Sky Bet Ebor:

Bague D'Or (James Ferguson)

Bague D'or (right) beats Vaguely Royal and Intinso

Back in 2021, this now six-year-old made his handicap debut for Chris Wall off 69 but signed off for the trainer in July 2022 with a fine second off 88 to Trawlerman at the Goodwood Festival; Trawlerman won the Ebor on his next start. Restricted to two starts last season (second over 12 furlongs at this meeting on the first of them), Bague D'Or made up for lost time when winning his reappearance at Newmarket after which his trainer declared they were working backwards from the Ebor. Royal Ascot failed to show this hold-up performer in his best light but he was better at Newmarket when staying on into third behind the front-running Fairbanks. Bague D'Or will need to step up again but that's feasible and he's one of the more interesting outsiders.

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Epic Poet (David O'Meara)

Finished in front of Bague D'Or in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot where he was also ridden from off the pace but whereas the former is proven over 14 furlongs, he has yet to race beyond 12 and has done most of his racing over shorter; indeed, two of his three starts for O'Meara have come over York's extended 10 furlongs. The form of his latest fifth to Enfjaar in the John Smith's Cup is working out well and suggested he would benefit from moving back up in distance; his stamina for the Ebor distance is far from guaranteed but the way he's been shaping offers encouragement. He may have been beaten in three handicaps this season but he was given an initial rating of 106 when joining the Meades from France in 2023 so potentially has some wriggle room from his mark of 100.

Fairbanks (Andrew Balding)

The tenacious Align The Stars fends off Fairbanks

Another to contest the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes, where he finished a one-paced sixth from a prominent racing position. A change of headgear and a first run over 14 furlongs saw him regain the winning thread at the July Festival (Bague D'Or third) before going down fighting at Glorious Goodwood to Align The Stars whose trainer considers him a Cup horse of next season. The last two winners of that Goodwood contest, Trawlerman and Sweet William, went on to finish first and second in the Ebor and both have gone on to prove themselves in the cauldron of Cup races. Fairbanks is rated similarly although whether he has quite the same scope is a moot point but he ticks a lot of the right boxes.

Magical Zoe (Henry De Bromhead)

Henry De Bromhead has only had 15 flat runners in Britain and has three wins from 15 runners aged four and up on turf; they include Term Of Endearment who took a Group Two prize at Goodwood over a mile and six with a couple of Ebor entries in Night Sparkle and Caius Chorister (a close sixth in last year's Ebor) behind. As such Magical Zoe has to be of keen interest and that's before you try and weigh up her County Hurdle fourth to last year's Ebor winner Absurde to whom she was conceding 6lbs. That experience of the hurly burly of jumps handicaps is no bad thing as she's only had three starts on the level, two in pattern company, and she could find a chunk of improvement for the likely stronger pace and bigger field.

Queenstown (Aidan O'Brien)

The three-year-old Mediterranean (2001) is the only Ebor winner on Aidan O'Brien's C.V. but Queenstown is a likely looking sort to double that tally. Unraced at two, he made heavy weather of his three-year-old season (all three runs on testing ground) with blinkers applied after an odds-on debut defeat and winning narrowly at the third time of asking.

An off-season gelding operation has had the desired effect as he's looked a far more willing performer in 2024 and has taken his form to a new level, twice finishing second to Kyprios having been asked to make the running for his top-class stablemate; one place behind on both occasions has been fellow Ebor entry and last year's seventh Yashin. That is a better guide to his claims than his proximity to the multiple Group One winner and suggests he has the form to be firmly in the mix with the promise of more to come.

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