The field will take some refining before the final order is set for the Ebor Handicap on Saturday (Aug. 21) as the York festival draws to close with one of the most lucrative races on offer. Check the best horse racing offers to bet with as a total of 22 runners will be permitted on the start line on the day, though there are many in contention still waiting to be trimmed from the order a week out.
But for all those uncertainties, it’s the top betting favourites and leaders who look most certain to participate, with 7/1 Live Your Dream the only entrant at single-digit odds as things stand.
Highly touted as the most valuable flat handicap in Europe, the Ebor will feature an inflated prize fund of £300,000 for the winner in 2021, decided over a distance of just under a mile and six furlongs.
The racing community will watch this one with bated breath, and we take a look at which ponies in particular have edged in front at a very even front of the field.
Live Your Dream (7/1)
As the name suggests, Godolphin-owned Live Your Dream will be desperate to realise his own following a much-improved 2021 season, having not raced at all in 2020.
The four-year-old started his career with Oisin Murphy aboard, and the Cork man should be back in the saddle following a brief ban for recently breaching whip rules at Glorious Goodwood.
It was a partnership that combined to winning effect in the recent bet365 Cup back in July when Live Your Dream looked good over a mile and six furlongs, having won over larger distances:
A maiden win at York in the Ebor would best the horse’s biggest winnings to date 10 times over, and yet his 7/1 odds still look slightly over-priced.
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor has won this race on two occasions in the past—in 2008 with All the Good and again in 2012 with Willing Foe—and Live Your Dream is well-placed to bring home a third.
Ilaraab (10/1)
Murphy may be the man of the moment as far as form winners in this flat season are concerned, but Ilaraab collaborator Tom Marquand has the wins to suggest he can rival in the Ebor.
It wasn’t long ago that the William Haggas-trained contender pieced together a six-win streak over the course of 10 months, though that run has since ended with an eighth-place disappointment in Ascot’s Hardwicke Stakes in June:
Marquand was at the wheel for that dismal display, and owner Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum can only hope a return to victory lane lies in his immediate future following a two-month respite.
Saldier (12/1)
Willie Mullins looks poised to have a number of top contenders in the mix for the Ebor, and Saldier is one of the wild cards in contention whose afternoon could go one of two ways.
It was in November 2018 that the BBC reported on his unfortunate fall at Naas with Ruby Walsh riding, and the only times he’s managed to finish inside the top four in eight outings since then, he’s won.
This is a seven-year-old who will either shrink under the spotlight or rise to the occasion in magnificent form, with Patrick Mullins having ridden Saldier to a second win in three races at the Galway Hurdle Handicap two weeks ago.
That marked only the second time in his career that Saldier has celebrated two wins in three outings, hoping to have found the ideal home at around a mile and six furlongs.
2021 Sky Bet City of York Stakes – Odds Leaders
| Team | Odds |
| Live Your Dream | 7/1 |
| Ilaraab | 10/1 |
| Saldier | 12/1 |
| Sonnyboylisten | 12/1 |
| Tribal Craft | 14/1 |
| Baby Zeus | 14/1 |
| Hamish | 14/1 |
| M C Muldoon | 14/1 |
| Princess Zoe | 14/1 |
| Fujaira Prince | 14/1 |
