Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival: Our favourite memories
Building up to the Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival, our team share their favourite York memories - and we want yours too.
Our team reveal their favourite memories from York - now we want your feedback! Check out details of how to contact us towards the foot of the article.
Ben Linfoot – La Cucaracha, Borderlescott and Frankel
La Cucaracha, the summer of 2005
I couldn’t possibly nail down my favourite moment at York to just one so here are three. First up, the summer of 2005. Liverpool had just won the Champions League, Lily Allen was top of the charts and LA CUCARACHA was doing her thang on the track.
Barry Hills’ speedball mare was a proper sprinter by the 1994 Nunthorpe winner, Piccolo, a top sire of sprinters, and, though she wasn’t a typical daughter of her old man in that she didn’t come to hand early, she thrived as a four-year-old and especially so at York.
Second in the Group 3 Summer Stakes on the Knavesmire on July 8, she cruised through to win the Skybet Dash two weeks later and then turned on the after-burners to beat The Tatling by a neck in a thrilling Nunthorpe the month after that.
It’d already been a huge summer for York given Royal Ascot was hosted there, but I remember the yellow, black and pink blur of the flying La Cucaracha just as vividly as Azamour’s Prince of Wales’s victory a few months earlier.
Borderlescott, the king comes home
If we’re talking northern legends all week then we have to give a special mention to BORDERLESCOTT. What a sprinter he was for Robin Bastiman and he loved York, so it was fitting his crowning moment came at the track after a countrywide roadshow.
As he was rising through the ranks he won handicaps at York off marks of 92 and 97 but after that last victory he wasn’t to return to the Knavesmire for 30 races. In that sequence he won a Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood and was second and third in two more, while he was second in Listed and Group races on 12 occasions, unfairly garnering a reputation as a nearly horse.
Before he was to return to York he won the Nunthorpe – at Newmarket – but he finally arrived back on the Knavesmire on August 21, 2009 as reigning champ but with a point to prove back on ‘home’ turf. He duly dispatched outsider Benbaun and the fancied juvenile Radiohead by a neck and a length-and-a-quarter, going down in history as the only horse to win a Nunthorpe at two different venues.
Frankel, the greatest
And so to FRANKEL, the greatest there ever was and the day he came to York. Sir Henry Cecil’s wonderhorse came to the 2012 Ebor meeting on the back of three incredible wins in the Lockinge, Queen Anne and Sussex Stakes, three victories achieved by a combined margin of 22 lengths with consummate ease.
His Royal Ascot victory was breathtaking, but there was a clamouring for him to do something different after he had pulverised his opposition over a mile for the best part of two seasons. At York he ran over 10 furlongs for the first time in the Juddmonte International and you can tell how worried punters were about the step up in distance – he was sent off 1/10 after going off at 1/20 at Glorious Goodwood!
As he loomed up on the bridle at the top of the home straight the hairs on the back of my neck went up in the anticipation of seeing something spine-tingling. I’ve never known a horse get a standing ovation for the final three furlongs with the result in no doubt, but that’s what happened the day Frankel came to York. The people amongst those famous red, white and blue barber’s poles never had it so good.
Matt Brocklebank - Marsha & Authorized
Dettori celebrates prematurely
It's exactly why we love him so much, in fairness. Frankie Dettori is the ultimate racing showman and, true to form, isn't really one to sit quietly, ashen-faced, as he waits for the judge to call a photo finish. Especially when he's convinced he's won.
In the 2017 Coolmore Nunthorpe, the Italian was left "gutted", and no doubt more than a touch embarrassed, as his showboating tendencies got the better of him aboard the odds-on favourite Lady Aurelia.
The American speedball was clearly a popular pick on the Knavesmire and, after making just about all the running, Dettori seemed keen to immediately calm the nerves of her backers with a convincing punch of the air on passing the post alongside the fast-finishing Luke Morris on MARSHA.
He even gave it the full finger-to-lips silencing gesture just for good measure, the only problem being that the tiring Lady Aurelia had been beaten a nose right on the line.
The Nunthorpe has produced some amazing races down the years, Sole Power's 100/1 win and an emotional triumph for the locally-trained Mecca's Angel other recent standouts, but for pure sporting drama there was nothing quite like the conclusion to Marsha's success.
Derby winner a class apart
The Dante Festival at York remains high on my own personal list of favourite race meetings. The turf is long and lush, the racing of the highest quality and the crowds aren't quite so... 'fired up' as those in attendance for the John Smith's Cup and the Ebor Festival a little later in the year.
Conditions are basically perfect for racegoers and the feature event remains the best Derby trial this side of the Irish Sea.
Working out whether or not the form is going to be strong enough to cope with the pick of the Classic crop from Ballydoyle, however, isn't always an easy task.
Aidan O'Brien has won the Dante four times in the past with horses who didn't get anywhere near to winning at Epsom in June (Cape Blanco went to France instead, where he was well beaten) and there have been plenty of 'home' Dante heroes who frankly haven't been up to Derby level.
However, that wasn't the case in 2007 when AUTHORIZED oozed class on the Knavesmire.
It was a first venture north for Peter Chapple-Hyam's Montjeu colt as while he'd won the Racing Post Trophy at two, that Group One had been rearranged and run at Newbury in the October of 2006.
He arrived in Yorkshire with a big reputation and slammed John Gosden's Raincoat by four lengths, along with a couple of other well-regarded sorts, in a performance which left little doubt we had seen a bona fide Derby contender. So it proved.
Send us your views
Send your favourite memories from York and other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks please let us know.
Feedback from readers
Tim Williams: Let's go back a little further. How about Cawstons Pride winning the Lowther (a match, with Lester on the outclassed outsider). Lester did though win the Ebor that day (you can't keep a good man down). I was sixteen, with a school mate. I will be there again for all four days this year. A wonderful meeting still. But it was more colourful it those days. Ryan Price, Ernie Johnson, Brian (Ernie) Taylor.
Dave Chapman: My two fav horses of all time arguably both had one of their very, very best performances on the Knavesmire, Frankel wining the Juddmonte was absolutely sensational as was Mill Reef's romp in atrocious ground to win the Gimcrack all the way back in 1970. I love to watch the top-class racing at York but really don’t expect to see two better performances than these through the rest of my days - if any horse proves me wrong then it surely would have to be a beast of an animal.
George Goodenough: This one's easy as it is more or less the best betting memory of my life. It was day one of the May festival 13/05/2004 in the six-furlong handicap. I had recently bought Andrew Mount's book on Trend Horses and a study of that threw up two likely contenders in the shape of Quito and Tom Tun. I had £3 on each nose and a £2 reverse forecast. At 25/1 Tom Tun led most of the way before Quito came out of the pack and nailed him late on at 12/1. The return on the bet was slightly north of £600. On the 21st of May I got married and £100 went on the wedding fizz and £500 provided a free bar for the guests. The wedding was in Bridgwater in Somerset and Bridgewater Boys ran the same day. 10 of us had £5 each on the nose and he duly delivered at 10/1. So some of my guests went home with fuller wallets than when they arrived. Coincidentally, I discovered in 2018 that Andrew M and myself share a mutual friend. Contact was made and AM graciously accepted the bottle of champagne that I had owed him for 14 years. Happy memories and I hope that the readers find this a heartwarming tale in difficult times.
Tony Harbour: Hello again Sporting Life. It's brilliant how these subjects get one thinking about yesteryear. I always find it's easier to remember horses and results from years ago rather than recently. HALKOPOUS was a favourite of mine. A trainer I always liked in Mark Tompkins and a good winner of the John Smith's Magnet Cup of 1991. The other I remember was RODRIGO DE TRIANO. He was pure class and ridden from stone last to win the Juddmonte International, beating Pat Eddery on All At Sea. Fantastic. Hello to all readers and keep well.
Steve G: York was my first trip to the races in 1974, aged 18. My dad had never been to the races either but he drove me to York, from Dudley, to see Dahlia, first of the globe-trotting wondermares? Dahlia duly won the then-called Benson and Hedges Gold Cup, a race she won again the next year. I didn't return to York until 2019 when I saw what we expected to be Enable's last UK run. Covid-19 permitting, I will be there again this year!
Andrew Pelis: My favourite memory is of the 1991 Ebor Festival and Terimon. I had been invited to the offices of The Sporting Life in Holborn on work experience and ended up with such luminaries as David Ashforth and Mike Cattermole. 1991 was all about Generous and Suave Dancer in the middle-distance races, and I felt that the Juddmonte International that year was an opportunity for Terimon to finally land his Group One. He had endured several near misses, notably when second to Nashwan, at 500/1, in the Derby. The 1990 Derby winner Quest For Fame had not really progressed, while Topanoora and Stagecraft I felt were good, but not outstanding horses and Environment Friend had been hit and miss. The race was primed for an upset. Clive Brittain enjoyed a fine 1991, with Mystiko landing the Guineas in those same Lady Beaverbrook silks, carried by Michael Muis Roberts.
Terimon had been beaten by the above horses prior to York, but the Juddmonte/Benson & Hedges Gold Cup had thrown up plenty of upsets over the years and his half a length second to In The Groove in the Coronation Cup, was arguably the best form. I was the only person in the building who fancied Terimon that day and I watched with delight as Muis jumped Terimon out and made all for a comfortable two-length victory over Quest For Fame. Catt bought me a coffee for my winning tip!
There were plenty of shocks at that particular Ebor Festival, with the track controversially watered before the meeting. But as a young racing cub, working with my peers and fellow racing fans for the first time, Terimon made it a week to remember. Mike Gallimore, the editor at the time, wanted me to write the next day's Man On The Spot column!
Dave Parker: Roberto beating Brigadier Gerard in what was then the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup - what a shock. The spectators were so quiet and in shock, I'll never forget it. Frankel's win was awesome, made the other horses look second rate. To be fair to them they weren't, in another year they would have held their own.
Commanche Run in 1985, start to finish Lester Piggott dictated the race and not even the great Oh So Sharp could catch them, fantastic ride by the greatest. Lochsong in the Nunthorpe and Authorized in the Juddmonte, both ridden by Frankie Dettori. I would have said at his best but in recent years he has been riding better than ever and long may he do so.
It is great that punters like myself now can watch more York meetings than ever before thanks to ITV and coverage by the racing channels, may it long continue, it keeps my old brain ticking over.
