Quotes that made the 2026 Ebor Festival including Colin Keane, Callum Shepherd and Arapaho Gold's owner Doug Graham

Balmy summers not for everyone

Item and Maltese Cross took the plaudits on day one at York and while Andrew Balding, William Haggas and these horses’ respective connections are far from minor cogs in the machine, I can’t have been the only one who found it just a little bit refreshing to see the six Ballydoyle runners across the two big Wednesday races having to settle for supporting roles.

I didn’t have a bet in the Juddmonte International in the end and John Gosden was bemoaning the ground afterwards for beaten favourite Ombudsman but the heart really went out for Ed Walker and Kieran Shoemark after Almaqam was headed by the Colin Keane-ridden winner, who would no doubt have been an unlucky loser after being made to wait for a gap two-out.

WATCH: Replay Wednesday's Juddmonte International in full

Almaqam, winner of the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh earlier in the campaign, is just a miles better horse after rain and it’s unfortunate he’s only once in his life been able to compete on ground that Timeform have described as ‘Soft’ which came in May 2024.

“Annoyingly, he was a big, backward horse and he’s had two of the driest summers on record,” Walker mused afterwards.

Almaqam skipped last year’s Arc and ended up running third to Calandagan on a sound surface in the Champion Stakes at Ascot. You’d have to imagine both autumn showpieces will be given serious consideration again on the back of this cracking effort in defeat, and if it’s wet he’s got every right to be in the conversation.

No traffic problems out in front

“When you start your career, you almost blink and a race is over but now it feels like going through traffic in a very nice car.” Apprentice rider Jack Nicholls was speaking candidly to Melissa Jones (Daily Express) in the lead-up to Ebor week, and the 20-year-old is clearly starting to excel in the fast lane having steered Miss Yechance to victory in the three-year-old handicap over five furlongs.

Nicholls, son of Adrian and grandson of ‘Dandy’, is Karl Burke’s latest promising find and he told Lydia Hislop on Racing TV in his post-race interview that riding winners at Chester and York, together with losing his 5lb claim, were top of the 2026 wishlist.

He’d chalked them off long before the Ebor Festival winner but this was a really good ride from the front on a particularly fast filly and should do wonders for the confidence of Nicholls, who is saving up for a house by all accounts.

He’ll presumably be on the lookout for a sporty car at some point too.

Sizzling Fry up for major honours

After backing Small Fry in the Ascot Stakes as well as the Summer Handicap at Goodwood, I was made to swallow my medicine as he bolted up at 2/1 in the Sky Bet Stayers Handicap.

“He won really well,” said red-hot jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle in the understatement of the season, and whatever the handicapper decides to do with him, you suspect Small Fry is going to go off favourite for the Cesarewitch on October 10, although he also holds an entry in the Irish version at the Curragh which is just a couple of weeks before the Newmarket race so it’s a situation to keep an eye on.

Given the way trainer Joseph O’Brien operates, there could be a lot more to come from the ex-Gary & Josh Moore runner, and he’s in the O T I Racing ownership so could end up Down Under with a Melbourne Cup on his agenda in the fullness of time.

Albany aces continue to shine

Sun Goddess lit up day two with a startling performance in the Harry's Half Million By Goffs.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. She was completely cut down and then showed unbelievable speed. It’s just very, very special,” Derek Smith told ITV.

Sun Goddess was a Group 1 winner in a sales race, in receipt of weight from four of her rivals who were all seemingly toiling in the increasingly soggy conditions late on, but it was hard not to be deeply impressed.

There’s plenty of speed in her pedigree and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at Keeneland might end up being the right sort of race to test the water in terms of stamina, although another sprint test in next month’s Cheveley Park Stakes looks like being her assignment.

It was a great hour or so for the Albany Stakes form, with Libertango winning the Sky Bet Lowther earlier in the afternoon, and I’m convinced it’ll continue to work out well with the likes of Ascot third Light Of Dawn (Karl Burke) set for a decent autumn campaign too with a bit of luck.

Check fails to bounce out in time

“Just to point out that I put the blindfold on myself in the gates, so it was loose (not tucked in as is the case when loaded with one), I’ve not mistimed it and my hand didn’t slip off it. Somehow, it’s got caught on the cheekpiece, maybe to its Velcro? I don’t know.”

I don’t know either, but Checkandchallenge’s jockey Callum Shepherd felt moved to respond on X after taking considerable flak following a miserable start in one of the most competitive handicaps of the week.

Shepherd had only returned to action a couple of weeks ago following a four-month layoff due to a cracked kneecap sustained in a stalls accident at Kempton and the BHA swiftly (and quite bluntly) labelled this “jockey error” rather than anything untoward which might have resulted in the horse being scratched post-race à la the Betfred Derby.

“Shepherd’s explanation that the blind had become caught on the cheekpiece, and therefore took two attempts to remove, was noted,” the Stewards Report concluded.

Welcome back, Callum.

Arc coming around again

"It got a little bit messy with the pacemaker getting so far in front of us and then she had to be the one to chase her down. I was always happy when she got rolling, but then she was a sitting duck for those in behind. But that’s what she does, she’s all guts."

Colin Keane was puffing his cheeks out in relief after getting the job done on Kalpana in the Yorkshire Oaks.

You hear every autumn in the jumps world that horses are bigger and stronger than the previous year and have to take most of it with a pinch of salt, but Andrew Balding and his Kingsclere team have been saying similar things about this mare since the start of the season and evidence suggests they are spot-on.

She did finish pretty legless after having to cling on grimly from Jim Bolger’s fast-finishing Sparan Nua, but you can’t help but admire Kalpana and I don’t mind her chances in this year’s Arc de Triomphe. Granted, she was only seventh at Longchamp last October but nothing stood much of a chance drawn in the double-figure digits that day and she probably ran as well as could be expected from stall 10.

She’s just a bigger and stronger mare this year too, don’t forget.

Where the turf beats the surf

“The beast was off the leash… this was a chestnut bullet on the hoof,” Brough Scott purred in The Times on Saturday.

Bacio had threatened to boil over beforehand but was brilliant in Friday’s Nunthorpe and so too the story surrounding his Mexican rider Juan Hernandez, who was seen getting a helicopter at the track following a couple of brief and breathless interviews, made his flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles, before a two-hour car journey in time for six rides on the Pacific Classic card, one of the biggest of the season at Del Mar, the seaside city in San Diego County, Southern California.

The jet-lag clearly hadn’t kicked in either as he claimed the runner-up spot in the feature race and came within a head of landing a Grade 2 on the Juddmonte-owned Detain, formerly of this parish when with the Gosdens.

“It’s really special and never something I imagined would happen to me when I started racing in Mexico,” Hernandez had uttered before dashing for the chopper.

All that is gold does not glitter

The amiable Michael Dods has overseen the careers of a bunch of quality horses over the years and it seems Gimcrack winner Arapaho Gold has just about already joined that list.

What’s really exciting is that what might lie in store for the unbeaten gelding and David Johnson was typically measured in his weighing up of potential targets in 2027 for the horse in Friday’s Timeform Takeaway.

"When I first bought Arapaho Gold in the autumn last year, I thought, 'What's a man who can't see doing buying another horse?! It must be the most stupid decision I've ever made in my life'. I'm having second thoughts now!"

Owner Doug Graham gave the Racing Post’s David Carr’s one of the lines of the week after hearing all about his €42,000 purchase’s three-quarter-length defeat of Final Objective in the Group 2 contest, via his partner standing next to him.

Sondad a proper family affair

"You know the best thing about it? She doesn't charge anything to ride out. She's a very wealthy girl you know, so she doesn't charge us!"

Lydia Hislop looked to have a lot of fun interviewing Mick (quoted) and David Easterby, young Albert (David's son), Joanna Mason (David's niece), plus experienced work-rider and former champion lady amateur rider Serena Brotherton following Sondad's success in the Sky Bet Constantine Handicap.

Brotherton, who by day heads up the Equine Law Group at Langleys Solicitors in York, is credited with doing most of the early-morning graft on the rapidly-progressive Sondad and even those of us who had backed him under a penalty in the Stewards' Cup last time out - only to finish just outside the places seventh - couldn't help but raise a smile at Saturday's post-race celebrations.

King a prince among men

"What can I say about the trainer? He's an absolute genius."

So said Rossa Ryan after guiding Alan King's Daiquiri Bay to a hard-fought win in the Sky Bet Ebor.

Aidan O'Brien, Joseph O'Brien, Willie Mullins, maybe John Gosden? The word genius gets thrown about quite a bit in this weird and wonderful game but dealing with the highs and lows of thoroughbred conditioning on a daily basis does require a certain je ne sais quoi.

Alan King has been doing just that since saddling his first winner in 1999, keeping his famous level head and striving for success right from the early days of Relkeel, through My Way De Solzen, Penzance, Voy Por Ustedes, Katchit, Blazing Bailey, Walkon, Medermit, Grumeti, Yanworth, Sceau Royal and more recently Edwardstone.

Sadly, I often recall the demise of the highly promising Balder Succes when King enters the spotlight, not least because of a superb tribute written by the RP's Steve Dennis at the time but also the way that the trainer publicly dealt with the situation and all that comes with a high-profile fatality.

King has switched his focus to the Flat in recent years and evidently still has what's required to get the best from his horses and mix with the best around. I'd wager he's a man the majority of people find it very easy to root for and this year's Ebor day was all the better for Daiquiri Bay coming out on top from the Wathnan Racing pair.

READ: Log-in for free and check out David Ord's Ebor week diary

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