Thursday 19th August 2021

Ebor Festival Day 2

Author: Jordan Yates

“Welcome to the preview for Day 2 of this year’s Ebor Festival, and what a day it was on Day 1 of the meeting. The obvious star of the show being Mishriff, absolutely trouncing his rivals in the Group 1 Juddmonte International by the best part of six lengths. Bringing his tally of prize money to over 11 million in the process. 

From a punting side of things it didn’t go too badly at all, Twilight Calls grabbed sixth in the opener at 11/2 which snatched one of the seven on offer from Sky Bet and there were two winners had on the day which came in the form of Mishriff who won at 9/4 and the Irish raider Arcadian Sunrise who won at 11/4 but was a few points bigger when the blog went live. 

The feature race on Day 2 is the Yorkshire Oaks but I’m going to be skipping that one in the preview, Snowfall should win and if Wonderful Tonight doesn’t run she’ll be about 1/5. So it’s a no punting affair for me.

Hopefully we can add to the two winners bagged on the opening day. As ever, enjoy!”

– Jordan

It all kicks off at 1:50 again on Day 2 this time with a Group 2 contest though in the form of the the Lowther Stakes which is for fillies over six furlongs. I think this is all about Sandrine here for Andrew Balding and David Probert who arrives here defending an unbeaten record of three wins from three starts. She won the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot on her second outing before following up at Newmarket the last day where she claimed Group 2 honours, beating some of today’s rivals in the process. If turning up in that form again here it’s very likely that her rivals will struggle to reverse the form and get the better of her. She’s a very big player. If you want one at a bigger prize though I’m a fan of Hello You, who has her first start for David Loughnane here. I saw her when she won impressively on debut at Wolverhampton and she hasn’t done much wrong since, placing behind Sandrine the last two times, both within group company. Whilst she has a sizeable task on her hands to reverse that form she’s every chance of hitting the frame once more.

It’s the 2:25 next which is the Goffs Yearling Stakes over six furlongs. I’ve far from got a strong opinion on this, it’s likely that Richard Hannon will win it with something and System looks his first string. I have taken a tentative alliance with a Hannon horse here, and it’s with Oh Herberts Reign who’s the mount of Ryan Moore. and is currently a much bigger price than System (11/1 in places). He’s still a maiden but was last seen less than a week ago when finishing second at Newbury by half a length, that was a considerable improvement on his effort at Salisbury the time before and he’s certainly interesting back down at six here, If stepping up again from that Newbury run he’s every chance of outrunning the double figure price that currently trades at.

The 3.00 is the Clipper Logistics Handicap, which is a Heritage Handicap ridden over a mile. Like I do for many of these big field affairs I’ve had a couple of punts and once again utilising the very generous people of Sky Bet’s seven places that are on offer. The first of these is Irish Admiral for William Haggas and William Buick, who’s currently trading at around the 10/1 mark. He’s been a bit disappointing as of late when well fancied in a few assignments, but I haven’t given up hope on him just yet, he arguably ran his best race to date when finishing third here back in May and will contest this off the same mark as he did that day. I still think there’s a smart horse in there and if returning to the form of that May run he could prove that here. The second one I’ve took a chance on here is Orbaan for David O’Meara and Jamie Spencer at 10/1. He got no luck at Goodwood the last day when finishing sixth and was absolutely dreadful the time before that at Sandown, however, he’s back down to a mark of 100 here which is a mark he won off at this track last year when springing a 25/1 upset. That Goodwood effort wasn’t devoid of life either and he’s shown he can be more than competitive off this kind of rating.

The next race I’ll be taking a look at is the 4.10 which is a Class 2 Nursery over seven furlongs. Maglev will be popular here for William Haggas and probably rightly so. I’ve taken him on though with a 14/1 shot and that’s Mr McCann for Tom Dascombe and Pierre-Louis Jamin, who takes off a handy five pounds. He’s got the best form on offer here having finished fourth in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes, when only a couple of lengths behind Native Trail. You could argue that a lot of the others here haven’t had the chance to prove if they are up to that level, however, if he runs to that kind of level again on this occasion it’s hard to see him being too far away from the placings at his sizeable odds, and for that reason I’m taking a chance on him.

Concluding my preview for the second day of the Ebor Festival is the 4:45 which is the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Galtres Stakes, which is a race for Fillies & Mares over a mile and four furlongs. I like the Irish raider Amma Grace here for Dermot Weld and the champion jockey Oisin Murphy. Dermot likes to have winners at this meeting and has had his fair share of success in recent years and I think this four-year-old by Galileo has a great chance of adding to said success here on the back of her first try over the trip the last day, where she finished a solid fourth. That was a perfect prep for a stab at this and it came within Group 3 company. She’s already won a Listed race at the back end of last season and is a key player to notch up another here.

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