Ebor Handicap History and Trends
The Sky Bet Ebor Handicap is run over one mile and six furlongs at York for horses aged three years or older and is the most valuable Flat handicap in Europe.
Established in 1843, the race is now one of the staying highlights of the Flat season carrying total prize money of more than £275,000. Trainers target it with their premier stayers with many past winners using it as a springboard to tackling Group company and races like the Melbourne Cup. You could, in fact, argue that the Ebor is now the northern hemisphere’s equivalent of the Melbourne Cup, such is its value and prestige. The race is named after a shortened version of the Roman name for York, Eboracum.
- In the entire history of the race has a horse managed to win the event twice and that was almost 100 years ago. The roll of honour includes dual Champion Hurdler Sea Pigeon and smart stayer Further Flight but this is not a race in which fancied horses have a particular good record with all but three of the last 12 winners not starting at double-figure odds – winning favourites are rare.
- Only one recent winners has been older than six but only one four-year-old has won the race in the last nine years and no three-year-old has been successful since 2001, though most of that generation tend to contest the Melrose Handicap earlier in the week.
- The weights are rising in line with the higher class of entry so that is no longer a factor but ignore those so-called experts who claim that a low draw is essential – only one winner since 2004 has been drawn lower than 10 and the field often shuns the inside.
- More than half of the last 15 winners had run at least three times that season and won over at least 1m4f.
Finding the winner of the Ebor is fast becoming as much of a pin-sticking exercise as finding the winner of the Grand National. None of the 20 runners this year (or the two reserves) are competing outside of their comfort zone and while punters will be relieved that the heavily-punted Newbury winner Stratum has got a run, his price now (a best 7/2) hardly reflects the open nature of this most complex of handicaps and owes more to the fact that he is trained by the great Willie Mullins rather than his profile. On paper, Mullins’ supposed second-string Whiskey Sour has a similar chance and he is available at a general 8/1.
Irish-trained runners have won four of the last nine renewals and hold a strong hand again this year. As well as the Mullins’ duo, Jarlath Fahey sends over Sea The Lion who has won all three starts in 2018. He’s a best 16/1 and Ger Lyons runs Mustajeer (a general 25/1).
Nakeeta is 4lb higher than when successful in the Ebor last year but Iain Jardine has prepared him specifically with a repeat bid in mind and the 11/1 with Coral is interesting for each-way purposes. Dylan Mouth won the John Smith’s Silver Cup over the course and distance of the Ebor last month and can be backed at 20/1. Marco Botti also runs Crowned Eagle (a best 14/1). Weekender, at the head of the weights, also has a touch of class and Frankie rides the four-year-old, who was just touched off in a Listed race at York in June – he is also a best 14/1.
Weekender’s trainer, John Gosden, has never won the Ebor but maybe MUNTAHAA could be the one to put the record straight.
Priced up at 20/1 by Betfred, among others, Jim Crowley’s mount has kept good company over the last two seasons. He won the Group 3 John Porter Stakes at Newbury last year and has been running well enough in pattern race company this season to suggest he retains all of his ability. He’s only a pound higher than when winning over an extended 1m5f at Chester two years ago, his last run in a handicap.
Others to consider include the in-form Saunter (also 20/1 with Betfred), though he carries a penalty, and Fun Mac (a general 33/1). The latter has finished second in the last two runnings of the Chester Cup and is a stout stayer. Blakeney Point has been well supported in the ante-post market (now only a best 8/1 with Boylesports) and will relish a return to a longer distance but backers are relying on first-time blinkers to spark significant improvement on his bare form.
Sky Bet Ebor Handicap Current Best Odds
Stratum 7/2, Blakeney Point and Whiskey Sour 8/1, Nakeeta 11/1, Crowned Eagle, Weekender and Teodoro 14/1, Sea The Lion and Sir Chauvelin 16/1, Dylan Mouth, Muntahaa and Saunter 20/1, Platitude and Mustajeer 25/1, Time To Study, Fun Mac, Mountain Bell and Saigon City 33/1, Lord Yeats and Montaly 40/1, My Reward and Scotland 50/1
(Odds correct at 10.00am August 24)
