There are references to racing at York even during the Roman times. Romans, of course, called York Eboracum. However, racing as we know it started at York early in the 18th century, about the same time as when Queen Anne founded Ascot. The site of the Ascot racecourse hasn't changed; that at York has where earlier racing was held at Clifton Ings. The present site of the racecourse at Knavesmire was chosen because Clifton Ings was prone to flooding. For a while, racing was held at Clifton Ings as well as Knavesmire; from 1731, though, only at Knavesmire.

The Track
York is one of the few racecourses located in the heart of a town. A crow flying from the York City Centre in the direction of Pontefract would not have to fly far -- less than two miles -- to be over Knavesmire.  To begin with, the track at Knavesmire was a left handed horseshoe, rather like Epsom in shape, but completely flat. Races upto seven furlongs could be run off the straight chute. Town planning meant that a furlong was chopped off the chute and a new chute was opened at the final bend for seven furlong races. Early this century, an arc was constructed to connect the straight with the backstretch resulting in a round course of almost two miles. The wide straight at Knavesmire has always been about four and a half furlongs long, providing ample opportunity to late finishers and demanding good lung power from the front runners. It was on the redesigned course that the 2005 Royal Ascot Meeting was conducted while Ascot was being renovated.

The Ebor Festival
The Royal Ascot is five meetings run over five consecutive days in mid-June. Late in July, there is a five day meeting at Glorious Goodwood. The Ebor Festival comes in mid-August and consists of four days. Each of these meetings has a flavour and charm of its own. Top hats are considered de rigeur at Ascot; Panamas are favoured at Glorious Goodwood but York is less strait-jacketed, no headgear is prescribed and according a good Yorkshire friend, "even flat caps and trilbys are a rarity these days". York hosts three Gr.1 races and all of them are run during the Ebor Festival.

The big battalions, irrespective of their location, are prominent at Royal Ascot, Goodwood and the Ebor Meeting, especially in marquee races. The lesser races at Royal Ascot and Goodwood are dominated by trainers located at Newmarket and in the South. The Northern trainers come out in force at York in August. This year, trainers Mark Johnston, Kevin Ryan, K.R. Burke and John Quinn, all based in the North, had a winner at Royal Ascot as well as Goodwood and it will be no surprise to see them leading one at York. K.R. Burke, in fact, has had a winner during the Ebor Meeting in each of the last three years as have his southern based compatriots Richard Hannon, William Haggas, John Gosden and Andrew Balding. Runners from Ireland have an excellent strike rate and Aidan O'Brien has also had a winner in each of the last three meetings.

Juddmonte International Stakes, Gr.1
Run for the first time in 1972 as the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup, this race is the youngest of York's three Gr.1s. From 1989, the race has been sponsored by the late Prince Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms and known as the Juddmonte International Stakes. Contested over a distance a shade more than 2000 m., it is currently York's richest race stakes-wise, open to 3YOs and over.

The inaugural running was won by that year's Epsom Derby winner Roberto who inflicted the only reverse of his career on the older Brigadier Gerrard. Since then, four other Derby winners have followed in Roberto's footsteps with three of them doing so this century. In the last twenty years, nine four year-olds have won as against six three year-olds and five of an older vintage. The only filly or mare to win this millennium is Mr. J.C. Smith's Arabian Queen who put it across that year's Derby winner Golden Horn. Though the Northern trainers have their share of the pie in the supporting races, the only northern horse to win the Juddmonte is Authorized in 2007. He was trained at Manton by Peter-Chapple-Hyam.

In all time lists, jockeys Lester Piggott and Frankie Dettori are tied at the top with five winners each and it is the same case with the trainers as both Sir Michael Stoute and Aidan O'Brien have both saddled half a dozen. Three horses -- Dahlia, Ezzoud and Halling -- have won the race twice but none this millennium. Phoenix Tower, a very successful stallion at Manjri Stud, was beaten just a neck by Duke of Marmalade in 2008. About eight runners report to the Starter each year while neither the favourites nor the outsiders have an upper hand as each category has had ten winners. Aidan O'Brien and John Oxx have helped Ireland to take away the Trophy six times; Italian trainer V. Valiani came with Electrocutionist in 2005 and triumphed denying the glory to the Japanese horse Zenno Rob Roy by just a neck.

A freak accident on Ballydoyle gallops means that the long time ante-post favourite St. Mark's Basilica has not been declared to start. (To allay the fears of his fan's it must be said that the injury is believed to be minor). But such is the depth of talent available to Aidan O'Brien that he is in a position to cancel Love's Deauville date and switch her to York. Fancied to give the Derby winner Adayar a run for his money in the King George at Ascot last month, Love disappointed with an uncharacteristic lukewarm run. Adayar was already gone just as Ryan Moore was moving her up when Mishriff chopped her off. Whether that put her off is a moot point but she ended up third, about two lengths behind Mishriff. Mishriff and Love carry the same weights at York but the shorter distance of the Juddmonte favours the former. Super Sub Love did win the Prince of Wales's Stakes, Gr.1 at Royal Ascot but her two runs this year at Ascot have lacked the dazzle of the  year.  Alcohol Free is an interesting candidate. Three of her five wins are Gr.1s  and last time out she beat the colt Poetic Flare, a Classic miler. So far, she has never raced beyond a mile, her sire is better known for speedier sorts and she has a DI of 3.00. She is owned by Jeff Smith whose Arabian Queen shocked that year's Derby winner Golden Horn in this race six years ago at the odds of 50/1. Her connections have acknowledged that the filly may not get the trip but say that they have nothing to lose. Alcohol Free is from the wonderful La Troienne family and her stud value is already assured. Arabian Queen was trained by David Elsworth but Alcohol Free comes from Andrew Balding's Kingsclere Stables and Balding is currently in the lead for Champion Trainer's title.

Darley Yorkshire Oaks, Gr.1
This is the oldest of York's three Gr.1 races and usually takes place on Thursday. Established in 1849, it was for a long time restricted to only three year-old fillies. About thirty years ago, older fillies and mares were made eligible to run. Only Royale grabbed the opportunity to become the first filly to win this race twice. She was unraced at 2, made her debut late in May as a three year-old and recorded her double at the age of four and five. Islington emulated her feat winning in 2002 and 2003 while Enable won it first as a three year-old in 2017, did not participate in 2018 and scored her second victory in 2019. For about last fifteen years, Sheikh Mohammed's Darley breeding operation has sponsored the race.

While winning the race twice is to be applauded, the feat of winning the Epsom Oaks, the Irish Oaks and then the Yorkshire Oaks in one year should,  perhaps, be considered a more difficult achievement. Fair Salinia (1978), User Friendly (1992), Ramruma (1999), Alexandrova (2006) and more recently Enable (2017) are the five fillies who bagged this unique treble. The nineteenth century records of jockey Fred Archer in winning this race eight times and the legendary trainer Matt Dawson saddling nine winners are still intact. Daughters of Sadler's Wells have won the race four times; his son Galileo is also responsible for four and Danehill siring two, the Coolmore stallions have given winners of exactly half the winners in races run in the last twenty years. Galileo's sons, Teofilo and Nathaniel, have come up with Pleascach and Enable. By clocking 2.25.11 in 2008, Lush Lashes holds the distinction of  having run the fastest Yorkshire Oaks but the race that year was run at Newmarket because Knavesmire was flooded. Diminuendo's time of 2.25.79 recorded in 1988, though, has not been bettered at York. Eleven favourites have scored this century with four straight winning favourites in the last four years.

Thursday's stellar race will see the highly impressive three year-old filly Snowfall (Deep Impact - Best In The World) take on two seasoned older fillies -- Wonderful Tonight (Le Havre - Salvation) and Alpinista (Frankel - Alwilda) -- who are in prime form. Foaled in Japan, Snowfall won the Cazoo Epsom Oaks, Gr.1 by 16 lengths -- a record -- and followed it up with an almost nine length demolition of the field in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks, Gr.1. She is now seeking to complete a Gr.1 hat-trick. Wonderful Tonight has won her last four starts including three Gr.1s and is very comfortable over the distance. She does, however, have a specific preference for soft going and was pulled out at the last minute at Ascot from Adayar's King George. If she gets the going she wants, she is a threat to the favourite who is running against older fillies for the first time. Kirsten Rausing's Alpinista, bred at her own Lanwades Stud goes into the race with three straight wins over a mile and a half, the last one coming at Hoppegarten in the Longines Grosser Preis von Berlin to give her a maiden Gr.1 victory. She is a daughter of Frankel whose produce has been in tremendous form this year and comes from a branch of Mumtaz Mahal that has really thrived at Lanwades. The gap to her last race is rather short and she will be facing real quality opposition. Last year, she was a five length second to Love in this very race.  

Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes, Gr.1
If Neeraj Chopra  was to throw with his back towards the Winning Post from the 7 furlong marker in the chute, the javelin could well land in the parish of Nunthorpe with a bit of wind assistance ! It is that parish after which this race, which was first run early in the twentieth century, has been named. Sponsored by Coolmore for sometime now, this year's race has the added  "Wootton Bassett" in its name and that might make some people wonder why because the horse Wootton Bassett was neither bred at Coolmore, nor owned by any of the Coolmore racing partnerships and never raced in Ireland. Wootton Bassett was trained by Richard Fahey in Yorkshire; he was unbeaten at 2, winning the Prix Jean-Luc Lagarde, Gr.1 which made the Champion Two Year-Old in France. He lost form at 3, was retired to Haras d'Etreham in France and has been a very successful sire. He moved to Coolmore for the 2021 covering season and his fee was upped from 60,000 to 100,000 euros.

To begin with, it was an ordinary selling race. From the 1920s, though it has been a prominent one. Run over the minimum distance of five furlongs, it has seen many flyers get their names on the scroll of honour but the two who stand out are Tag End and Sharpo, both winning  it thrice and in consecutive years. It is also one of those rare races where 2YOs are allowed to run against older horses. When one thinks of Lester Piggott, one thinks of Classics and big races run over a distance of ground. Piggott won this race seven times and his record still endures. Ossie Bell heads the trainers' lists with six wins. The Aussie O.M.D. Bell had trained in India before moving to England. The Bell Brand -- his horses had names like Bell Ringer, Bluebell, Clarrie Bell, Church Bell and so on -- was very popular at Calcutta and when Mr. J.C. Galstaun raced in England, some of his horses were entrusted to "Ossie".

This century has seen Nunthorpe winners of all ages in digits with the exception of 8. Six fillies have won and four horses -- Borderlescott, Sole Power, Mecca's Angel and Battaash -- won the race twice. Borderlescott first won at Newmarket on the July course and folllowed it up with an encore at York a year later. Sole Power won his first as a three year-old at the odds of 100/1 and after a gap of three years  as a 11/4 favourite. Richard Hughes, so well known in India, was astride Sole Power in his second victory. Hughes had earlier piloted Oasis Dream in the Nunthorpe and is the only professional to be associated with two different winners of the race. The two wins of trainers Robin Bastiman (Borderlescott), Edward Lynam (Sole Power), Michael Dodds (Mecca's Angel) and Charles Hills (Battaash) came with the same horse as it did in case of jockeys Paul Mulrennen (Mecca's Angel) and Jim Crowley (Battaash).  Stallion Dark Angel's progeny is responsible for four wins coming through the dual winners Mecca's Angel and Battaash. Battaash, incidentally, is the only winner to break the 56 seconds barrier having clocked 55.90 in 2019.  Favourites have had the short end of the stick in this race with just six of them -- including one joint favourite -- being successful in the last twenty years.

As of Monday morning, there are still seventeen runners left in this year's renewal. Heading the betting market are two runners who are not trained in England. Golden Pal (Uncle Mo - Lady Shipman), who runs in the colours of a Coolmore partnership and is trained by Wesley Ward, will be crossing the Atlantic. Ward has had conspicuous success with his raiders to England and Golden Pal did come over last year to Royal Ascot and was a neck second in the Norfolk Stakes, Gr.2. He has since won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, Gr.1 and, on his last start, the Quick Call Stakes, Gr.3 at Saratoga. He has a most interesting pedigree and his DI is 'Infinity' but don't take that at face value because there are only two chefs de race in his first four generations and they are father and son. Irish-born filly Suesa (Night of Thunder - Sally Is The Boss) is trained in France by Francois Rohaut. Last time out, she blitzed the field in the King George Qatar Stakes, Gr.2 at Goodwood handing a three length beating to Dragon Symbol (Cable Bay - Arcamist). The grey Dragon Symbol, runner-up in his last four starts, is due for a change of luck. He headed Wesley Ward's filly Campanelle in the Commonwealth Cup, Gr.1 at Royal Ascot in June but was placed second after a Steward's Enquiry. Course and distance winner Winter Power (Bungleinthejungle - Titian Saga), a filly, is trained in Yorkshire by Tim Easterby and won the John Smith's City Walls Stakes, L in July when she was ridden by David Allan. The four market leaders are all three year-olds; while Suesa has been steady, the odds of the other three have shortened. The other three course and distance winners are Moss Gill -- second to Winter Power in his previous start -- Bedford Flyer and Que Amoro. In a lighter vein, the lady luck is with the two year-old Chipotle who is trained by Eve Johnson-Houghton and is likely to be ridden by Hollie Doyle !

Sky Bet Ebor Handicap
There is no Gr.1 race on the concluding day of the Festival which has the Sky Bet City of York Stakes, Gr.2 on the card but the feature event of the day is the Ebor Handicap. Classics and black-type races may command the attention of big owners and breeders but to the common punter the big handicaps are the real attraction. Big fields and winners at big odds are probably what catches their fancy and U.K. has plenty of such races starting from the Lincoln Handicap in the spring to the Cesarewitch Handicap in Autumn. The biggest of them all -- certainly in terms of the prize money -- is the Ebor Handicap. The race is contested by horses aged four or more and run over a distance, almost, of a mile and six furlongs.

In this century, 20 runners have usually lined up for the Ebor and four times there has been a full house of 22. Only one favourite -- Purple Moon (7/2), trained by Luca Cumani -- has obliged and other than him there have been just three other winners whose odds were in a single digit.  Two lady trainers -- Jane Chapple-Hyam and Lady Cecil -- have saddled winners but no filly has won the race though a few have run. Mudawin, a 100/1 winner in 2006, was trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam. Luca Cumani saddled another winner in Mephistol while Saeed bin Suroor also has two to his credit. No jockey, however, has managed more than a single winner. Though there have been a few three year-old winners earlier, there has been only one in the last 20 years and that was Mediterranean saddled by Aidan O'Brien. Generally, the five year-olds are to the fore.

Perhaps, the most famous winner of this race is Sea Pigeon who carried 10-00 [63.5 kg] at the age of nine in 1979. A legend over the jumps, Sea Pigeon was ridden by Jonjo O'Neill, another revered name in National Hunt [NH] racing. Much before him, Flint Jack won the race in successive years in the early 1920s and he remains the only one to have won the race twice.

With 75 runners still in the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap, it is difficult to pick out horses which deserve a mention. The best that can be said is that Godolphin's hat-trick seeking Live Your Dream is the favourite at 8/1. Saldier, Hamish, M C Muldoon, Princess Zoe and Sonnyboyliston come next in the betting at odds ranging from 10 to 15. Four of them -- Hamish excluded -- will be coming from Ireland. This is a race best enjoyed rather than one bet on.

PAST THE POST
As an appetiser before the star sprinters contest the Nunthorpe Stakes, Gr.1 on Friday,  two year-old colts will vie for supremacy in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Gimcrack Stakes, Gr.2. The Gimcrack Stakes may have lost a bit of prestige and significance that it enjoyed in the previous century but it still remains a race many owners want to win. The owner of the Gimcrack Stakes winner is traditionally invited to give a speech at the annual Gimcrack Dinner held in December. There is a story about an owner who had led in the winner of the Epsom Derby. When he was interviewed, he is supposed to have said, " Every man who owns a race horse dreams of winning the Derby. I did, too, but I never honestly believed that I would because I had only a few horses. I did want to win the Gimcrack Stakes and give the speech at the Gimcrack dinner. I believed that I could but, in reality, never did. That is the only regret of my racing life".