York's Racecourse's 2025 Dante Festival ready for Wednesday's start
THE first day of the 2025 Dante meeting at York Racecourse arrives on Wednesday with an incredibly competitive seven-race card for punters heading to the track.
The action kicks off at 2.10pm with the Jorvik Handicap in class two before the card comes to a close at 5.25pm with another handicap, this time in class four, and 15 runners are set to take it on.
The opening contest of the afternoon sees 12 runners head to the stalls for the class two Jorvik Handicap over the one mile and three furlong trip (2.10).
Marhaba The Champ looks the way to go in the opener, trained by Kevin Ryan, despite some patchy form to kick off this season off the back of a seventh at Pontefract on reappearance but has dropped down a couple of pounds in the weights and could figure prominently.
Race two on the card is another class two handicap, this time over the much shorter six furlongs (2.42). Likeable types Holkham Bay and Two Tribes are taken to come to the fore in a typically competitive renewal of this handicap.
The latter is very appealing on the back of his solid reappearance effort and with top jockey Ryan Moore booked, but Holkham Bay caught the eye at Goodwood recently and he gets the nod.
Trainer Kevin Ryan has saddled the last two winners of this and his representatives Bergerac and We Never Stop both have solid claims.
The Group 2 1895 Duke Of York Clipper Stakes is up next at 3.13, worth a cool £85,065 to the winner.
Night Raider, trained by Karl Burke, was most impressive in a listed race on the all-weather surface when last seen in November and is selected to take the step back up in class in his stride and show he's equally as effective on turf.
Ryan Moore takes the reins on last year's Commonwealth Cup hero Inisherin and Kevin Ryan's charge may provide the chief threat ahead of Flora of Bermuda, a course and distance Group 3 winner last year.
Six runners will head to the start for the Musidora Stakes, race four on the York card, at 3.45 and another big prize pot is up for grabs, with £73,723 heading to first place.
Smoken quickly reached a useful level last autumn and is taken to stretch her unbeaten record to three on Wednesday.
Whirl, trained by powerhouse Irish handler Aidan O'Brien, should be better for last month's Curragh reappearance and might be the one to give Ralph Beckett's filly most to think about.
Gallant stepped up a little on his reappearance and was better than the bare result as the only one to make an impact from off the pace when fourth in a Newmarket handicap four weeks weeks ago.
Appealing as the type to go on improving and completely unexposed at this trip, he earns the vote to come out on top in race five of the afternoon (4.18) for trainer Andrew Balding.
A valuable novice stakes is the penultimate race of day one at York (4.55) over the five furlong trip but a disappointing field of six will take it on despite the prize money on offer.
Richard Hannon's Ballistic Missile looks the way to go here on debut, for a yard that is on fire with their two-year-old's this season.
Finally, the card comes to a closer with the 15-runner class four handicap over the mile and three furlong distance (5.25) with preference in the finale heading the way of Don Simon, who arrives at York on the back of two straight seconds and has the form to go one better for trainer Ed Dunlop, who has taken the plunge and booked star jockey Ryan Moore to ride.
York selections - Wednesday
2.10 - Marhaba The Champ
2.42 - Holkham Bay
3.13 - Night Raider
3.45 - Smoken
4.18 - Gallant
4.55 - Ballistic Missile
5.25 - Don Simon
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