York chief executive William Derby is excited by an Ebor Festival that will have a real international flavour this week, with the Knavesmire becoming the “global spotlight of the racing world” for four days.
Australia will take on America with defending champion Asfoora facing off against Bacio in the Coolmore City Of Troy Nunthorpe Stakes on Friday, while Japanese raider Satono Reve heads over for the Sky Bet City of York Stakes on Saturday.
The showpiece fixture though gets under way with the Juddmonte International, with £1.5million in prize-money making it York’s richest-ever race, and a mouthwatering clash with multiple Group One-winning Ombudsman taking on French Derby and Eclipse winner Constitution River.
Derby said at lunchtime on Tuesday: “It’s good ground at the moment. It’s quite cloudy, a fresh day, so the heatwave is well and truly behind us. We’ve had just under 10 millimetres of rainfall in the last 48 hours.
“The forecast is for showers through the week, so sunshine, bright spells and then showers and the possibility of some organised rain on Thursday morning.
“We had 73,000 here last year and were are 12 per cent ahead in general admission bookings for the meeting, so we’re looking forward to a good week. We’ve got really strong entries, 125 have just declared for Thursday which is the most I can remember here and we’re really looking forward to the week.”
Of Wednesday’s main event, Derby said: “It’s an incredible race for the richest race we’ve ever staged, the Juddmonte International, £1.5m. It’s twice been the Longines world’s best race in 2020 and 2024, and also was in 2014, and this year’s renewal looks amazing quality and it’s reward for the investment in the prize-money by Juddmonte and ourselves.
“The big races are all hot contests. We’re delighted with the Legends Global Yorkshire Oaks with King George winner Kalpana taking on Minnie Hauk and the Irish Oaks filly Johanna Walsh, so an amazing feature for Ladies Day on Thursday.
“Then we have a really international Coolmore Nunthorpe, with Asfoora, the Australian defending champion, taking on the hotshot from Royal Ascot, the American Bacio, and then the best of the European sprinters so a tremendously strong Coolmore Nunthorpe.
“And then the Sky Bet City of York is the most recent Group One of the week, which has the Japanese runner Satono Reve so we’ve had a really international field, top-quality horses, record investment in prize money.
“We’ve got the most distribution broadcast coverage we’ve ever had for the meeting so it seems like the global spotlight of the racing world is on York this week, which is fantastic.”
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