York Ebor Meeting reflections: Our team have their say

Sprinting division at low ebb

Nunthorpe winner Asfoora was only fourth when sent off favourite last year but that was when she was over the top, and her trainer Henry Dwyer has done a great job with her considering she hadn’t had the best season before Friday, only fifth when defending her King Charles III Stakes crown at Royal Ascot and then seventh in the King George Stakes at Goodwood, where the ground may have been slower than ideal.

But - as the only top-level winner in the field - she bounced back in style with a one-and-three-quarter-length success in a race where she was travelling notably strongly for a long way, and, really, it was only a matter of time before Oisin Murphy was able to let her down; his first Nunthorpe success will surely be his easiest.

Asfoora was chased home – at a distance – by 100/1 shot Ain’t Nobody and Frost At Dawn. The latter has been one of the success stories of the season for William Knight, but her in-the-frame efforts in the King Charles III, King George and Nunthorpe, along with the surprise July Cup win for No Half Measures, help to underline the paucity of quality in the division.

While she’s now a two-time Group 1 winner, Asfoora isn’t near the top echelon of Australian sprinters. Friday’s win was akin to Nathan Lyon scoring a century at Lords against an under 15s team.

We were spoiled with Battaash; at this point I'd bite your hand off for a Mecca’s Angel. (Nic Doggett)

The hapless art of the pacemaker

Three weeks on from Qirat springing a 150/1 surprise in the Qatar Sussex Stakes, we came close to a repeat dose in the Juddmonte International.

Birr Castle was the hare this time and allowed to build up a 20 lengths lead by the home turn. It was only his late paddling and the turbo-boosts of Ombudsman and Delacroix that saw him eventually finish third.

But if you give 110, 115 rated horses such a start, ignore them from the moment the stalls open to the moment that Sir Alex Ferguson called 'squeaky bum time', then the chances are we're going to see more and more 'pacemakers' making all in the big races.

And the problem is they're not pacemakers ultimately because the rest of the field completely ignore them.

You have two races in one. The leader away and clear, the rest running in exactly the sort of falsely-run contest connections who ran the one in front were trying to avoid in the first place.

But unless the first string goes forward and sits close to the gallop, why would anyone else?

The best example of it working this season was Continuous driving forward in the Coronation Cup, shadowed by Jan Brueghel who kicked first and got Calandagan racing long before his connections would ideally want.

But in the Sussex Field Of Gold was never going to track Qirat, Ombudsman a hold-up horse who likes to be played last likewise at York.

They're not horses who pacemakers are going serve well. Yes, connections want a true gallop, but everyone else knows that. Ignore the one in front and you give them the exact scenario they were trying to avoid in the first place.

No. Here's my prediction. At least one more pacemaker wins a Group One in the UK before the end of 2026. (David Ord)

Thinking on the hoof

However you like your racing served, a good deal of preparation goes into the day, analysing the form, speed figures, stride patterns watching replays and whatever other metrics and systems take your fancy.

The draw is high among them and for a while now a low draw has been the place to be at York but the playing field moved during the meeting. It started pretty much as expected with stalls 7, 4 , 8 and 10 the first across the line in the opening sprint handicap but the last race on Wednesday saw 22, 9, 12 and 21 lead them home. Even then that could be excused with Ruby's Angel ending up close to the far side and Hugo Palmer revealing that he had told Saffie Osborne to 'edge left, edge left and edge left', instructions she carried out to perfection.

The nursery on Thursday, though, saw those in the three highest stalls fill three of the first four spots to turn the perceived wisdom on its head (for all they finished middle to far side) and that continued through the week with jockeys starting to shun the far side and seek fresher ground in the middle of the course with Frescobaldi ending up close to the stands' side rail in the Convivial Maiden.

Perversely the field in the concluding handicap, over a furlong further, stayed on the inside with the first home from a double figure draw (17 ran) Sea Force in sixth having emerged from 11 and responsible for the last six home (all priced between 22/1 and 80/1).

Most punters will have some firm views or preconceived ideas at the start of the day but the ability to revise that stance, to think on the hoof as events unfold can hold the key to a successful week, or otherwise. (Ian Ogg)

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