The joys of British Flat racing's variation: Sky Bet Ebor Festival reflections

You’ll hear it from once-a-year racegoers on the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Lawn and the fellas with a thousand Grandstand and Paddock badges draped from their binoculars in the queue for one of Ged Bell’s local pies.

You’ll hear it from the TV producers, presenters and the wizened old newspaper journos to boot. The valets, jockeys, trainers and owners are in full agreement, and I certainly wouldn’t be bold enough to play devil’s advocate.

But my God, York is not for the faint-hearted punter.

There are 10 Group races at the Sky Bet Ebor Festival and this year only two of them were won by favourites - Relief Rally in the Sky Bet Lowther and Kinross in Saturday’s City Of York.

Not a single market leader won any of the 14 races across Wednesday and Friday, and while Thursday and Saturday offered some respite for punters with several very popular winners, the layers unquestionably held sway after Sky Bet Ebor favourite Sweet William was ‘Frankied’ in the big betting race on Saturday.

York Racecourse is also super-flat and favours prominent racers; another truism to which one is likely to receive little push-back.

Have a glance through the in-running comments and see how many of the 28 winners during Ebor week ‘led’, were ‘prominent’ or raced ‘in touch with leaders’. I count 15, though I’ve been wrong before when it comes to numbers.

Mostahdaf, Zoulu Chief, Dragon Leader and – most famously - Live In The Dream all made the running and barely saw another rival between them en route to respective victories.

Only three horses came from the rear to take top spot, namely Marhaba The Champ, Continuous and Lake Forest, and I’m sure the significance of Ryan Moore riding two of those will not be lost on the majority of our readers.

But what is important to stress is that I make these observations from a place of love. Watching and betting on races at York is frustrating (see exhibit A: Designer in the fillies’ handicap) and occasionally downright galling (B: Warm Heart), but above all it is deeply challenging and, as such, all the more rewarding when things do fall into place.

Hence Saturday’s increasingly intensified flicks of the tea towel to the rhythm of Oisin Murphy’s right-hand drive on Middle Earth while enjoying ITV Racing on the iPad in my kitchen – the kids having commandeered the lounge to watch Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, or something.

We hear a lot that speed carries at York and it may be a bit of an acquired taste for certain horses but isn’t that latter point also the case with Newmarket, Chester, Epsom, Ascot and Goodwood too? Each top-class course has its own idiosyncrasies and, for me, that nuanced variation is precisely what makes British Flat racing the envy of other jurisdictions around the world.

Would 28/1 outsider Live In The Dream have beaten Highfield Princess and Bradsell had he taken his chance in the King’s Stand Stakes this summer? And what of Mostahdaf versus Paddington in a Coral-Eclipse around Sandown or a Prince of Wales’s at the Royal meeting next year? It's hard to know for sure, which has got to be a good thing.

Results like Friday's Nunthorpe are briefly baffling and very hard to put a number on because on the face of it the winner has outperformed anything he’s done in his 17 previous starts by around 10 or 11lbs, but try watching the scenes that followed and tell me that sort of story isn't good for the game. New faces competing and winning at the highest level, and enjoying every moment of it.

As this country's summer swing on the Flat just about draws to a close, the victory of Live In The Dream will be very hard to top purely in terms of the feelgood factor.

It's clear no two days are the same when you're into horses but variety isn't just the spice of life in racing; it’s the sweet, the sour, the savoury and every subtle note in between. And it's precisely what propels most people involved with this gripping sport out of bed every morning.

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