The Tout’s tips for the York Ebor Festival
The summer moves on apace and we reach the great northern three day Ebor summer festival on the Knavesmire at York (Roman name ‘Eboracum’).
There is a long straight here that stretches any of the runners but this event represents four of the highest class days of flat racing of the year. It is, in fact, only a nudge behind Ascot. One element that is never needed is too much rain as the ground gets very heavy, very quickly here and hence the name Knavesmire.
The opening day on Wednesday has one of the fascinating clashes of the season between Al Kazeem, the turf horse of the year thus far, and our old friend Toronado who steps up in trip to a mile and a quarter against older and more mature horses. As Toronado is a 3 year old and Al Kazeem is 5, he will receive a weight allowance of 8lbs on the weight for age scale and this may just tip the balance of power. Al Kazeem is currently favourite at 11/10 but The Tout favours Toronado again to prevail at 3/1. Just remember he is tackling a new distance and older horses for the first time, but the stable are still bang in form and he is a potential superstar.
On Thursday, settle for a small each way on Riposte at 7/1 and wait for Friday when HM The Queen’s Gold Cup heroine, Estimate, reappears in The Lonsdale Stakes over a mile and three quarters. Then let’s also hope that Dettori can work the magic on Shea Shea in the blisteringly fast Nunthorpe Stakes over 5 furlongs. Blink and you’ll miss it. The Ebor is a notoriously difficult race for punters but Sheikhzayedroad appears to hold a very good chance at 10/1.
Be lucky up north and be sure to watch every day as it is a very special race meeting.
The Tout.
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