Ebor Festival Day One Tips: Four To Back At York
A big four days awaits on the Knavesmire as York racecourse plays host to one of the best festivals in the flat racing calendar; The Ebor! Things start off hot with a belting day one and we have you covered with all the tips...
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13:50 York - Symphony Group Handicap
A nice and easy way to kick things off at the Ebor Festival of 2024, a blink and you'll miss it sprint handicap with pace across the track and the field chalked up at 7/1+ at the time of writing. The market leaders are Pilgrim, who has been put away since a fantastic run at Royal Ascot to scoop the Palace Of Holyrood Handicap and has a smashing record at York, along with Holkham Bay.
The latter named has been in good form this season and took that to another level last time out at Ascot 11 days ago when scooping a decent prize. He looked to do that fairly easily but in behind was KYLIAN, who is double the price and better drawn today than his conqueror last time out and warrants support for a yard he only joiined at the start of the season and who seem to have finally got to grips with him.
He finishes with a flourish and that could be crucial here with so many likely to attempt to front run, and at 14/1 he looks an appetising each-way bet to hopefully kick us off with at least some place returns.
14:25 York - Acomb Stakes
Billy has penned a full race preview of the Acomb Stakes and picked his idea of the winner, which you can read below...
15:00 York - Great Voltigeur Stakes
A trappy looking affair for this Group 2 for three year olds, but to my eye there has been one horse in particular who is being underestimated purely on jockey bookings for Ballydoyle, ILLINOIS. His Irish Derby winning stablemate Los Angeles heads the field here at 6/4 and does hold a win over Illinois on his CV so far in their campaigns, however I'm convinced Illinois is a better horse now than he was that day in France and there's no chance he should be quadruple the price of his stablemate or over double the price of second favourite King's Gambit.
Euphoric is the outsider of the field in here and is presumably running as pacemaker for Los Angeles, but I do believe if he goes off a bit quick for everything the horse who will benefit the most is Wayne Lordan's mount Illinois. He is a real grinder who will relish if anything else comes to battle with him a furlong or so out, and while King's Gambit and Los Angeles may be classier they could get dragged out of their comfort zones by the stamina proven horse of the field.
15:35 York - Juddmonte International
The big race of the day warrants a full in depth preview! Check out Billy's thoughts on the blockbuster Group 1 clash below...