Key events
YORK 2.10, HANDICAP, 1M 3F 188YD
The runners are going to the start for the opening race of the season here at York, and while it is a competitive handicap on paper, William Haggas’s The Reverend, in the colours of Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom, is a strong favourite at around 5-2. He is making his seasonal debut here but was a fair fourth in a similar event over track and trip last October and is currently trading at around 5-2. The lightly-raced Almosher (6-1) has two wins from three starts so far, Plage De Havre (also 6-1) has been prolific on the all-weather over the winter but needs to bounce back from a sub-par run last time but STRESSFREE, at 9-2, is the only runner attracting support against the favourite and could be the value bet having run a race full of promise at Epsom last time.
Royal runner is the latest first for Mullins
An interesting story that few would have seen coming arrived via the Irish Field this morning, when it was revealed that the King and Queen, no less, have joined the roster of owners at Willie Mullins’s record-breaking yard in Ireland.
Reaching High, a four-year-old gelding who was trained until the end of last season by the now-retired Sir Michael Stoute, has been switched to the Mullins stable in Closutton, County Carlow, and declared to run in a 12-furlong handicap at Leopardstown on Friday evening, with Jody Townend, the youngest sister of Mullins’s stable jockey, Paul, booked to ride.
The late Queen Elizabeth II, who bred Reaching High from her favourite racemare, the Ascot Gold Cup-winning Estimate, had a handful of runners in Ireland over the course of her 70 years as a racehorse owner. These included the high-class Carlton House, 5-4 favourite when beaten into fourth in the Irish Derby in 2011, but all of her runners were stabled with British yards.
Reaching High will be the first horse to carry the famous royal colours from an Irish yard, and from some angles, this could perhaps be seen as a bit of a kick in the teeth for the British training fraternity, not least at a somewhat sensitive point in turf history when, for the first time, the champion trainers on the Flat (Aidan O’Brien) and over jumps (Mullins) are both based in Ireland.
Mullins told the Irish Field that “we [Mullins and his wife, Jackie] were introduced to King Charles and Queen Camilla at Royal Ascot last year. The next thing we got a phone call asking if we would take a horse for them. I said I would be delighted and Reaching High arrived here shortly afterwards.”
Reaching High has been schooled over hurdles but will make his debut for the stable on the Flat and Mullins is already looking towards a possible run in the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot next month.
“His pedigree is all stamina,” Mullins said, “so those kind of races could suit him.”
Musidora Stakes the feature event on York’s opening day
Good afternoon from the Knavesmire on the first day of the 2025 season at York racecourse, when the Musidora Stakes (3.45) – the last of the traditional trials for next month’s Oaks at Epsom – is the feature race on the card.
Three of the six fillies – Smoken, Whirl and Go Go Boots – have an entry in the Classic, and all have something to recommend them. Whirl looks to extend Aidan O’Brien’s remarkable run of form in Epsom Classic trials over the last 10 days, Smoken was unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile including a very warm Listed event in November, and Go Go Boots is from the John & Thady Gosden stable, which has won this race eight times already.
All three are currently priced up at around 33-1 for the Oaks, but a striking success this afternoon would inevitably prompt a sharp cut in their Classic odds. Secret Satire, a shock Musidora winner 12 months ago, did not get the trip at Epsom but the previous three winners of this trial included two Oaks winners – Soul Sister and Snowfall – and an Epsom runner-up, Emily Upjohn, who was denied by a nose after no luck in running.
So it is a race to take seriously as a pointer toward Epsom and elsewhere, and so too is the Duke Of York Stakes at 3.13. Three of the last four winners – Starman, Millstream and Highfield Princess – went on to win Group Ones later the same season, and four of today’s runners had high-class form as three-year-olds in 2024 with the promise of better still to come in their four-year-old campaigns.
Three typically competitive handicaps complete the ITV Racing coverage from York, the official going is good to firm, good in places, and the action is underway at 2.10 with the Jorvik Handicap, something of an early trial for the Ebor – Europe’s richest handicap on the Flat – back here at the August meeting.
Preamble
Tony Paley
Greg is at York and will be with you shortly for today’s live blog on the opening day of this year’s Dante meeting. Tomorrow features the Dante Stakes itself, usually a very key Derby trial and this morning we had the Jockey Club announcement that next month’s Epsom Classic on 7 June will be run in honour of the late Aga Khan IV.
A prolific breeder and owner, the famous racehorse owner came from a line of great racing enthusiasts and was successful in the Derby on five occasions, witnessing Shergar win the race by a record 10 lengths in 1981, followed by victories for Shahrastani (1986), Kahyasi (1988), Sinndar (2000) and Harzand (2016).
The Aga Khan’s daughter, Princess Zahra, said: “My family and I are incredibly grateful to Epsom and the Jockey Clubfor running the race in honour of my father.
“The Derby is an iconic event that he deeply loved and winning it for the first time with Shergar brought him immense pride and joy. It gave him the sense that the work his father and grandfather had accomplished with the breeding operation was being carried forward.
“He eventually matched the record of my great-grandfather when Harzand secured his fifth Derby victory – a wonderful achievement.”
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