ITV Racing Tips: Away He Goes could be the answer to intriguing Ebor
Published:
York’s four-day summer spectacular comes to a close with its signature race, the £500,000 Ebor Handicap.
This historic race is one of the most competitive handicaps in the calendar, not surprisingly given its value.
Because of that it has the quality of a pattern race with no horse rated below 101 and every runner carrying at least 9st 1lb. That has meant the ante-post favourite Live Your Dream missed the cut and will only get in off the reserve list if there is a non-runner.
The Ebor is the highlight but there are four other Group races on terrestrial TV plus the Melrose Stakes, another highly competitive 22 runner handicap for three-year-olds only.
ITV have made space for six races, four from York and two from Sandown, which will be shown from 1.25pm and we have previewed the three most significant races of the day in our ITV Racing Tips.
After missing a Group 3 opportunity at Haydock after the ground turned soft, it is to be hoped there won’t be another interruption to Real World’s rise up the ranks.
This looks a prime opportunity for Saeed Bin Suroor’s rising star who is unbeaten in Britain. Real World is not only the top-rated horse in the field, he also gets weight from some of his biggest threats such as My Oberon and Lord Glitters.
His performance against those two in particular should provide a measure of Real World’s class but judging by his two recent wins, the story of the Godolphin colt and his young rider Marco Ghiani is not finished yet.
In the years before the Ebor became so much more competitive, some of the runners in this field would have been running in the feature race.
Nowadays, you rarely see a three-year-old in the Ebor so the Melrose has become a very competitive race in itself. Nearly every horse is on the upgrade, which makes it such a difficult race to pick the winner of.
Many of the big stables are represented including Aidan O’Brien, John and Thady Gosden and Sir Mark Prescott, who will try to pull off the type of success at which he excels with Summer’s Knight, who has won four of his last five races, starting off a lowly mark of 63.
Plenty of stables like to target the race particularly William Haggas, who has won it twice in the last ten years, and Dhushan looks another strong contender.
Bidding for a hat-trick at Ascot last time, he couldn’t quite catch First Light but a likely stronger pace at York may help return him to winning ways.
Live Your Dream’s participation depends on whether there is a non-runner but until the deadline expires he heads the betting, along with Hamish.
William Haggas’s runner Hamish is one of a number of intriguing candidates, who will be having his first start since finishing fourth in last year’s Hardwicke Stakes.
On his previous run he went down by a neck to leading Group 1-winning stayer Trueshan. The question is whether he will be straight enough to win first time out in such a competitive race.
The same applies to Mount Leinster, who is trained by Willie Mullins, and Humanitarian, from the John and Thady Gosden stable, but on their track record they are challengers that must be taken very seriously.
Away He Goes could be the answer. He ran a blinder to finish second to Trueshan at Goodwood, cruising into contention but unable to match the winner’s finish on testing ground. The step back in trip is bound to suit and at double digit odds he looks decent each-way value.
ITV Racing Schedule, Saturday, 21st August
13:50 York – Strensall Stakes
14:05 Sandown – Solario Stakes
14:25 York – Melrose Handicap
14:40 Sandown – Atalanta Stakes
15:00 York – City Of York Stakes
15:35 York – Ebor Handicap
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
