York Racecourse is back with its opening festival of the year, The Dante. On the Wednesday, we are met with seven races on the card. The highest paying on these days in the form of The Tattersalls Musidora Stakes, The Duke of York Clipper stakes and the Sky Bet Race to The Ebor Festival Jorvik Handicap Stakes.

Firstly, the opener coming in the form of the Jorvik handicap stakes is set to see 14 horses go to post over a mile and a half in the form of a Class 2 handicap. This sees some horses’ first reappearance since the end of last season. The two horses who are set to reappear are the two which head the market in the form of Klondike and Marhaba The Champ. The betting angles on this race would be to stick with the course and distance winner (C&D) Marhaba The Champ. Readily available at the moment at 5/1 which I believe is a fair price for a horse which has scored over C&D off a similar weighting. He also won at this festival in his reappearance last year over a shorter trip which showed he is ready to fire first time out. After this he stepped up in trip and won over a mile and a half at the Ebor meeting beating a nicely handicapped horse in the form of Bague D’or. Also, the jockey booking of William Buick is a positive who steered him to win at this time last year. If betting on this horse, you should be looking for a win bet as the E/W doesn’t offer much value unless a drift to 6s+.

The next race to be covered will be the Musidora Stakes which sees recent winner in Friendly Soul for the Godsen team rightfully heading the market at around the 6/4 mark. This horse looked a smart one last time out (LTO) beating Baldings’ horse Kalpana by 1¼ length on seasonal reappearance who also looks a smart one. The horse holds entries into the coronation cup at Royal Ascot meaning if they really have aspirations to win the Coronation Cup this field should be beatable for her. John & Thady Godsen have a very impressive strike rate in this race, winning 5 out of the last 10 running’s of the race. However, the best betting angle in this race in terms of value would be the smart filly out of Study Of Man, Francophone. This filly strikes as one who is very progressive and should enjoy the step up in trip to a mile and a quarter. This horse is available at prices of 17/2 with bookies like SkyBet and William Hill or more readily available at prices of 8s. At this price, it offers a very nice E/W value and with Study Of Man fillies firing of late and scoring a winner at ParisLongChamp there is no reason why she can’t progress on and win the Musidora Stakes.

The final race being covered is The Duke Of York Stakes. This race is over 6f for 3yo+ sprinters. This race is a true test of pace and a bit of luck when it comes to the final 2 furlongs. This race features 15 horses going to post and multiple C&D scorers with an abundance of talent. This race features last years winner, Azure Blue, Ascot Champions Day winner Art Power and many horses who were in behind Art Power on that day are reappearing here. One of the horses who was in behind him that day was Swingalong. This filly has plenty of ability and has no reason not to progress on with getting a 4lbs allowance on the field. She has been the pick of stable jockey Clifford Lee and as a 4yo, she could just have the legs on some of the older horses in here and reverse form with Art Power. Another horse who has beat majority of this field on seasonal reappearance is Washington Heights. Beating off Mill Stream by ¾ length. This horse is priced up at 10/1 with most bookmakers and seems to have trained on from last year. His performance in the Abernant was impressive which shows he has trained on from last year where he was just a handicapper. As Kevin Ryan’s horses have been operating at just below a 20% strike rate there is no reason why this horse cannot progress on further in the Duke Of York Stakes.

To recap, these are the horses highlighted throughout:

2:15 York – Marhaba The Champ 5/1 win bet.

3:15 York – Swingalong 7/1 E/W bet and Washington Heights 10/1 E/W.

3:45 York – Francophone 17/2 E/W bet or betting w/o favourite market.

(Prices available at time of publishing)

If interested in purchasing tickets for the event for any of the days follow this link.

Photo credit: blackbullfc on Flickr