Ladies Day is the social highlight of York’s Ebor Festival, but the racing action is also right up there in terms of quality and quantity of runners. The Group One Yorkshire Oaks is backed up by the Lowther Stakes for juvenile fillies and a valuable sales race which has almost £600,000 in total prize money.
Here are our York Ebor Festival Thursday tips for the first five races covered by ITV:
13:50 Tip
13:50 LIVENKA @ 15/2
Irish trainer Ger Lyons is a rare visitor to the UK these days and only makes the journey when he thinks he has a serious chance. This filly looked way above average in winning the valuable Ballyhane Stakes at Naas and is clearly on an upward curve ahead of the Group Two Lowther Stakes.
Livenka’s two early defeats came against a couple of Aidan O’Brien’s top juveniles and in winning her maiden at Fairyhouse she beat the reopposing Star Of State , who won by nine lengths next time up.
14:25 Tip
14:25 SATELLITE OF LOVE @ 6/1
Sun Goddess is a Group One winner and Tokaido has won a Group Two , so they predictably take out a huge chunk of the betting market in the lucrative Harry’s Half Million by Goffs . Owners Middleham Park Racing have a great record in these sales events, though, as does trainer Clive Cox , and they combine with Satellite Of Love.
Unbeaten in two outings, he has followed a similar route to Song Of The Clyde , who won this race for the same team last term - and Lambourn handler Cox is incredibly going for a fourth win in a row.
15:00 Tip
15:00 BULLET POINT @ 11/2
The William Haggas -trained five-year-old was quite a well-beaten second in the Shergar Cup recently, but it was at least his best run for some time in first-time cheekpieces. Bullet Point won the same Sir Kevin Sinfield 7 in 7 Grand Finale Handicap last year from a mark of 100 and is only 1lb higher this term.
15:35 Tip
15:35 KALPANA (NAP) @ 11/10
Technically, the Yorkshire Oaks should represent an easier task than Andrew Balding’s star mare faced on her most recent outing in the King George . At Ascot , she took on a host of Group One -winning colts and geldings from all over the world and beat Calandagan by a length and a half, with last year’s Epsom , Irish and Yorkshire Oaks heroine Minnie Hauk a distant eighth.
That form alone is head and shoulders clear of the rest of this field and while it was only 26 days ago and Taghrooda did get turned over at 1/5 in 2014 when trying to do the same double, she was only three at the time and Kalpana is two years older, making her much stronger.
Johanna Walsh looks the best of the Classic generation after a wide-margin Irish Oaks win and is in receipt of 9lb, but she will have to improve again to trouble Kalpana in a race in which favourites have done exceptionally well down the years.
16:10 Tip
16:10 MORROPHORE @ 7/2
John and Thady Gosden’s charge was clearly going the right way on the all-weather earlier this year and looks worth following in the Sir Henry Cecil Galtres Stakes despite a 215-day lay-off. When landing Lingfield’s Winter Oaks, Morrophore got up close home to beat Sky Safari , who went on to win the Winter Derby next time out, so that looks strong form.
Betting Tips
York Ebor Festival Betting Tips
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