Timefigure analysis from Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York including Ombudsman, Minnie Hauk and Asfoora

By Graeme North

Horse Racing

Tue August 26, 2025 · 4M ago

Our timefigure expert Graeme North neatly rounds up the Sky Bet Ebor Festival from a times point of view with Minnie Hauk impressing most on the clock.

Conversations I have heard around the overall quality of the Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York, varied from good to fair. The purists would have been disappointed at some of the field sizes and probably the quality too of the Group races restricted to older horses – just four in the Yorkshire Oaks, six apiece in the Lonsdale and International and seven in both the Acomb and the Great Voltigeur – and it seemed to me more acutely than ever before that there too many Group races of a similar type across Europe at this time of year too close together.

That drop off in quality has meant the elite races at seven furlongs and a mile are now open season for the top handicappers as it has been at five and six furlongs for several years now.

York’s opening day card was comprised of four handicaps, all of which attracted 13 runners or more – indeed, none of the handicaps across the whole week attracted a single-figure field, much as would be expected given the prize money on offer – and three Group events, the first of which was the Acomb Stakes over seven furlongs.

Won in 2022 by subsequent 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean and contested last year not only by a horse who was favourite for the same race over the winter (The Lion In Winter) but by the horse who went on to win it in his absence, Ruling Court, it was won this year by Andrew Balding’s Gewan who had won a novice at Newbury in July in a good 92 timefigure but left that form behind here to run to a Timeform rating of 108p.

The winning time wasn’t spectacular, translating into a winning timefigure of just 96, with upgrades calculated from three furlongs out adding just 2lb or 3lb to that figure which is around 7lb less than Chaldean (who’d also won the same Newbury race) achieved three years previously, so on the face of it he has a bit of improving to do to keep pace with his former stablemate who won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster next time out.

PJ McDonald and Gewan land the Acomb in good style

Gewan has plenty of scope, though, but so too does runner-up Italy who might not yet have fulfilled the immense promise of his Leopardstown debut but once again shaped well after a slow-ish start left him with a bit to do while leaving the impression that a mile will suit him better, so both look worth keeping onside.

For all the Great Voltigeur attracted the Derby winner Lambourn, it ended up going to Pride Of Arras who had looked such a good prospect for the big race itself in the Dante here in May only to disappoint firstly at Epsom and then at the Curragh.

Looking well after seven weeks off, Pride Of Arras probably didn’t show much if any improvement on his win in the Dante here in May once sectional upgrades that day are taken into account, with his return to form probably as much to do with his gelding operation since last seen at the Curragh as it was a return to York where course specialists are not uncommon.

From a time perspective, it wasn’t a vintage Voltigeur with the winning timefigure coming in at just 100, but that figure was a consequence of the pace in the first mile or so being somewhat ordinary only picking up turning for home.

Lambourn might have needed the run after seven weeks off, comments that also apply to his stable-companion Stay True who was appearing after an even longer absence, so both their finishing efforts might have been improved upon another day but the race surely didn’t get to the bottom of Arabian Force who was held up last yet managed to run the last half a mile faster than Pride Of Arras and just four lengths slower than Ombudsman in the following International.

The International was a bizarre race and for the second time in a few weeks in a Group 1 contest the question which begged to be asked was what is the point of running a pacemaker if you are then going to sit 20 lengths off him?

Part trainer John Gosden joked afterwards that he would have to have a word with Andre Fabre whose Birr Castle was supplemented for the front-running role but surely his consternation should have been directed at William Buick who, along with the other riders, allowed the leader far too much rope and would surely have paid for it had the Birr Castle that showed up this year been the manifestly superior version that was operating in 2023 and 2024.

Birr Castle performed his role as best he could under a smart ride form Rab Havlin, and even hung on for third, but Ombudsman just had it in him to reverse form with Delacroix from the Eclipse in a 107 timefigure that rather encapsulates the slightly messy nature of the race.

According to RaceIQ data, Ombudsman ran the second fastest last three furlongs of the week in any race not run at six furlongs or shorter (Fifth Column ran the fastest), the sixth-fastest last two furlongs (Duke’s Command was the fastest) and the 11th-fastest final furlong (Fifth Column ran that one fastest too).

Ombudsman bounds clear in the closing stages

Minnie stars on day two

Thirsk isn’t known as a hotbed of two-year-old racing, but the North Yorkshire track was chosen as the debut for the Lowther winner Royal Fixation as well as (later in the week) Gimcrack winner Lifeplan and the Duchess Of Cambridge runner-up, who’d run a 101 timefigure behind the subsequent Prix Morny winner Venetian Sun at Newmarket, only had to repeat that same level of form (and timefigure) to get the better of 12-length debut Haydock winner America Queen who looked inexperienced midrace but still managed to get back up and pip Princess Margaret runner-up Staya for third.

The valuable Sales race went to Song Of The Clyde who stepped up on her previous form to take advantage of the two form horses being among the trip disadvantaged by racing on the far side rail to score in a 94 timefigure, the race overall lacking the bit of quality as a result that even stronger runnings of such variable merit contests can usually muster.

In contrast to the previous day’s International, the Yorkshire Oaks was run at an end-to-end gallop with Minnie Hauk’s 116 timefigure not far off her 122 Timeform rating, and never any danger that the ‘pacemaker’ Garden Of Eden would get away from them while Estrange ran well enough on what is considered unsuitable ground, doing enough to suggest there might not be much between her and Minnie Hauk should they meet in the Arc on easier conditions.

Minnie Hauk pictured with winning connections

Charlotte’s Web won what looked a substandard Galtres in a 96 timefigure, the winning time pretty much bang on two seconds slower than the Yorkshire Oaks, the winner played late trying the trip for the first time but having more than enough stamina to hold off the fast-finishing and much improved Crepe Suzette by a length.

Friday’s opening pattern race, the Lonsdale Cup Stakes, wasn’t run at a strong gallop initially – the winning timefigure was just 104 compared to a 117 performance rating by the winner – but the race unfolded far enough out for it to be a proper test and Trawlerman ran out a convincing winner from his stable-companion Sweet William who ran as well as he ever has in second spot and finished well clear of the rest.

In contrast, certainly compared to the collective quality of runners that took in Prix Morny over the same trip at Deauville two days later, the Gimcrack was run in a good time – winning timefigure was 108 – with the well-backed winner Lifeplan unquestionably the best on the day as he and the runner-up Rock On Thunder pulled five lengths clear of Do Or Do Not who reached a place again in a Group affair.

By Kodi Bear out of an Awtaad mare, Lifeplan isn’t particularly well bred but must have been a good looker as a yearling considering how much he cost and despite his pedigree came home strongly enough (ran the fastest final furlong of any race all meeting on the sprint track) to think that seven furlongs won’t be an issue.

With that comment in mind, I doubt he’d have cut much ice in the Nunthorpe, not that the two juveniles who tried their luck, both of whom had solid form at five furlongs, did with Lady Iman finishing 14th and Spicy Marg finishing last of all. Low to middle numbers dominated, perhaps unsurprisingly given Night Raider was in stall eight, and Australian mare Asfoora who tracked the pace bounced back to her best, though the proximity of a seemingly much-improved runner-up Ain’t Nobody in second place in first-time cheekpieces suggests this might be slightly unreliable form as Asfoora’s 107 winning timefigure suggests.

Asfoora is well on top in the Nunthorpe

Mixed fortunes for Hannon

Saturday’s feature, the Sky Bet City of York Stakes, run as a Group 1 for the first time, attracted a very representative field by its former Group 2 standards, including a multiple winner at the top level Rosallion, rerouted here after a small setback caused him to miss the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois the previous Sunday, the surprise Sussex winner Qirat as well as the Prix Jean Prat runner-up Maranoa Charlie who was having his first run in this country for his new connections.

All that said, the race went to a horse who started life in handicaps earlier in the season, Never So Brave, who, much like his contemporary More Thunder who’d won the Group 2 Hungerford at Newbury the previous week, had been trained by Sir Michael Stoute last season.

A winner of the Group 2 Summer Stakes at Ascot last time, Never So Brave only needed to repeat what he’d done off a mark of 105 in the Buckingham Palace to score by half a length in a 111 timefigure, chased home by the yet again unlucky-in-running Lake Forest with Maranoa Charlie third and Rosallion fourth.

Rosallion’s stablemate King of Cities won the other Group race, the Strensall Stakes in a 108 timefigure where the horse I mentioned last week, Gladius ran well but shaped as though it might be another race or two before he cracks that level, while the two staying handicaps, the Melrose and the Ebor, went to Tarriance and Ethical Diamond in timefigures of 105 and 98 respectively, Ethical Diamond shrugging off an 8lb rise for a Royal Ascot success with the turn of foot he showed then as well as here dangerous to interpret as one who relishes only the demands of a well-run large-field handicap.

King Of Cities (right) wins the Strensall

The City of York’s upgrade seemed to have a furthering negative effect on the Celebration Mile at Goodwood the day after – the race has been a substandard affair for its status for several years now and Jonquil (104) had run two disappointing races himself since the French 2000 Guineas, while the Group 3 Prestige Fillies Stakes (run on the same day and over the same distance as the Group 2 Prix du Calvados in France) earlier in the afternoon went to Aidan O’Brien’s Precise in a lowly 85.

If there was a potentially very good two-year-old on show it was Ancient Egypt who defied a penalty in the novice over a mile for Charlie Johnston in a 100 timefigure and looks the type who could easily prove good enough to win the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in which their Derby seventh Green Storm finished second to subsequent Derby third Tennessee Stud last year.

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