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Ebor Betting – Ebor Festival 2024

The four-day York Ebor Festival is staged at York racecourse – normally around the third week in August. The meeting is one to the end-of-season highlights of the English turf horse racing season and features many top Group races.

The 2024 Ebor Festival will be staged between Wednesday 17th August 2024 – Saturday 20th August 2024.

Have a look at our page dedicated to horse racing betting, to get more information about the famous horse racing events to bet on.

Events like the Juddmonte International Stakes, Gimcrack Stakes, Great Voltigeur Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes are all big highlights, but the festival is named after the ultra-competitive Ebor Handicap, that is always staged on the final day – Saturday. With £140,000 in prize money on offer to the winner of the Ebor Handicap, it’s the richest handicap race run in Europe at present and continues to be sponsored by leading bookmaker SkyBet.

The Ebor betting interest will start to increase as the meeting draws nearer each year, but many bookmakers will ante-post Ebor Handicap odds on their sites in the months leading up to the race day – being it’s certainly one of the betting highlights in the horse racing calendar.

Ebor Handicap Odds

Ebor Festival odds will normally appear on most of the leading UK bookmaker sites around April/May, once the new turf season gets going properly.
It’s always a good place to check the SkyBet site first as they sponsor the Ebor Handicap so are often keen to get the Ebor Handicap betting odds up earlier than most.

Being a very competitive race, the Ebor Handicap is always a race the bookmakers love too. The race normally has around 20 final runners so many options and opinions for horse racing fans, meaning unless there is a well-backed winner of the Ebor Handicap, it’s normally a race the bookmakers win to.

This is backed up with only two favourites winning the Ebor Handicap since 1999, while in 2006 the race was won by a horse called Mudawin, who returned at Ebor odds of 100/1.

There are many other big Ebor Festival races over the four-day meeting – including ten Group races. Of those ten Group races, there are three Group Ones – The Nunthorpe Stakes, Juddmonte International Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks.

Ebor betting odds on all the main York Ebor Festival races will be priced-up once the main flat turf season gets going each year in April/May.

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Ebor Festival 2013 at York Racecourse. Photo Credit: Alljengi / Flickr / CC-BY-SA 2.0

Ebor Festival Runners

The 2020 Ebor Handicap was won by the Roger Varian-trained Fujaira Prince at odds of 11/2 – this 6 year-old was sent off as the 2020 Ebor Handicap favourite and was only the second market leader to win the Ebor Handicap since 1999.

Other notable winners at the 2020 Ebor Festival were Godolphin’s Ghaiyyath, who landed the Group One Juddmonte International Stakes, Love, who was an easy winner of the Yorkshire Oaks and the speedy Battaash, who took the Nunthorpe Stakes.

When looking at the 2024 Ebor Handicap, the last back-to-back winner of the Ebor Handicap was a horse called Flint Jack in 1922 and 1923, so it’s very rare for horses to defend their Ebor Handicap title if running in the race again. Winners of the Ebor Handicap are often raised in grade too, which means several recent Ebor Handicap winners are later seen running in Listed or Group races as their handicap ratings after winning the Ebor Handicap can often rule them out of the race with better class options available now they are rated higher.

In the 2020 we saw the likes of Glencadam Glory (2nd), Monica Sheriff (4th) and Ranch Hand (6th) all run well so they could be horses that will be targeted at the 2024 Ebor Handicap.

Being the Ebor Handicap is run over one of the long trips on the flat, then it also often attracts runners that are more famed for running horses over the jumps. In recent times, big National Hunt yards like Willie Mullins (2009) and Gordon Elliott (2010) have trained winners of the Ebor Handicap.

Ebor Festival Tips

The Ebor Handicap is the most valuable middle-distance handicap in Europe – the 2020 winner, Fujaira Prince, won £140,000 when he won the race, while the total prize money on offer is just short of £250,000.

Other key York Races tips to note are that trainer Sir Michael Stoute has trained the winner of the Ebor Handicap three times in the past, while it’s been a race that has favoured the bookmakers over the backers as we’ve seen only two winning Ebor Handicap favourite win the race since 1999 – but one of those was only last year in 2020.

There are many York Ebor Festival betting trends to help you find the winners of the main races, including the 2024 Ebor Handicap.
It’s a race that’s been hard for punters with just two winning Ebor Handicap betting favourite since 1999, with the average Ebor Handicap odds for the winner being 20/1.

During that same period (last 19 runnings) there have also been 10 unplaced favourites, but another Ebor Handicap trend to note is the draw. Despite being run over 1m6f, the draw has been important with 15 of the last 19 Ebor Handicap winners coming from a double-figure stall.

Being a handicap, the weight carried by a horse is another key Ebor Handicap betting trend to note. A total of 17 of the last 19 Ebor Handicap winners carried 9st 5lbs or less in weight.

  • 17/19 – Carried 9-5 or less
  • 18/19 – Aged 6 or younger
  • 16/19 – Had won over at least 1m4f before
  • 15/19 – Won from a double-figure stall
  • 12/19 – Carried 9-1 or less
  • 12/19 – Aged either 4 or 5 years-old
  • 13/19 – Winning Distance – 1 length or less
  • 11/19 – Had 3 or more runs already that season
  • 10/19 – Unplaced favourites
  • 10/19 – Had run at York before
  • 6/19 – Ran at Ascot last time out
  • 6/19 – Won last time out
  • 5/19 – Irish-trained winners (5 of the last 10)
  • 4/19 – Ran at Goodwood last time out
  • 3/19 – Ran at Galway last time out
  • 2/19 – Ridden by Jamie Spencer
  • 2/19 – Placed horses from stall 1 (third 2011, third 2013)
  • 2/19 – Winning favourites
  • Just two winning favourite since 1999
  • Trainer Sir Michael Stoute won the race in 1980, 1991 & 1996
  • The average winning SP in the last 19 years is 20/1

Past Ebor Handicap Winners

  • 2020 – Fujaira Prince (11/2)
  • 2019 – Mustajeer (16/1)
  • 2018 – Muntahaa (11/1)
  • 2017 – Nakeeta (12/1)
  • 2016 – Heartbreak City (15/2)
  • 2015 – Litigant (33/1)
  • 2014 – Mutual Regard (20/1)
  • 2013 – Tiger Cliff (5/1)
  • 2012 – Willing Foe (12/1)
  • 2011 – Moyenne Corniche (25/1)
  • 2010 – Dirar (14/1)
  • 2009 – Sesenta (25/1)
  • 2008 – All The Good (25/1)
  • 2007 – Purple Moon (7/2 fav)
  • 2006 – Mudawin (100/1)
  • 2005 – Sergeant Cecil (11/1)
  • 2004 – Mephisto (6/1)
  • 2003 – Saint Alebe (20/1)
  • 2002 – Hugs Dancer (25/1)
  • Note: 2008 renewal at Newbury over 1m3f

Ebor Festival Bookmakers

Being a big-field handicap, the Skybet Ebor Handicap is a bookmaker’s dream race.

With many Ebor Festival runners in the race then it’s proved a graveyard race for punters in recent years. However, the Ebor Handicap is still a very popular betting race.

The Ebor Handicap is also sponsored by leading bookmaker Skybet. They are also worth checking out in the build-up to the race as they tend to have more Ebor offers than most.

Ebor Festival History

The Ebor Festival history is plentiful. The fixture’s name is shortened from ‘Eboracum’, which is the Roman name for York – the racecourse that stages the Ebor Festival each year.

The Ebor Handicap is run over a trip of 1m5f and is billed as being the most valuable flat handicap in Europe.

Lester Piggott is the most successful jockey in Ebor Handicap history with five wins in the race to his name, while the first-ever Ebor Handicap winner was a horse called Pagan in 1843.

The only horse to date to win the Ebor Handicap more than once was a horse called Flint Jack, who won the race in 1922 and 1923.

18+ | Please play responsibly | What are you really gambling with? | Terms and Conditions apply | Commercial content