Field of Horses in Turf Race
by: Racing EditorPosted on:

Irish Raider Hipop De Loire Tops Ebor Handicap 22

The 2025 Ebor Festival draws to a close on Saturday afternoon with another seven-race card to savour. Hot on the heels of the Juddmonte International, Yorkshire Oaks, and Nunthorpe Stakes, the top-level action continues with the City Of York Stakes, which will be held as a Group 1 for the first time in 2025.

That 7f event tops the bill from a class perspective, but the big betting heat arrives in the shape of the race that gives this meeting its name. First run all the way back in 1843, the Ebor Handicap is among the oldest and most valuable staying handicaps in the world. With a very impressive £500,000 in prize money up for grabs, the 1m6f contest invariably attracts a maximum 22-runner field.

This year, all 22 stalls are full once again, in a race which has attracted the best of the staying handicappers from both sides of the Irish Sea. With eight wins since the year 2000, those travelling from the Emerald Isle boast a solid record. The betting suggests that record may improve this year, with three of the top four in the market hailing from an Irish yard, including two from the dominant National Hunt operation of Willie Mullins.

De Loire Leads Closutton Trio

Ebor Handicap 2025 Betting

First successful with Sesenta in 2009 and most recently with Absurde in 2023, Mullins sends three in pursuit of a third Ebor success in 2025. Charlus is among the outsiders, having snuck in towards the foot of the weights, but Hipop De Loire and Ethical Diamond sit first and second in the market.

Going in the hands of 2019 Ebor winner Colin Keane, Hipop De Loire would surely have gone close to claiming the 2024 edition but for repeatedly meeting trouble in running. Forced to sit and suffer behind a wall of horses that day, he flew home once in the clear to finish a 4½-length fifth behind Magical Zoe. Only 3lb higher this time around, he’s in form following a 12-length Maiden Hurdle romp at the Galway Festival and boasts leading claims.

Mullins’ second string, Ethical Diamond, had long been touted as a potential big-race winner on the flat. The five-year-old delivered on that potential last time out at Ascot, when storming down the centre of the track to claim the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes. An 8lb rise and step up from 1m4f demands more, but the current second favourite benefits from the services of the excellent William Buick in the saddle.

Charlus will need to improve on a poor effort in the Copper House Stakes, but suggested he may be fairly handicapped when third off this mark last time out at Galway.

Moving away from the Mullins yard, Aidan O’Brien, Henry De Bromhead, Joseph O’Brien, Johnny Murtagh, and Jim Bolger have four Ebor wins between them, and add to what is a very strong Irish challenge.

French Master the Best of the Brits?

In common with Willie Mullins, John Gosden heads to the Ebor Festival seeking a third win in the flagship event. Muntahaa handed the Newmarket handler a first win in 2018, with a second arriving in the shape of future Ascot Gold Cup king Trawlerman in 2022.

This year, John & Thady Gosden rely on a horse who couldn’t quite cut it in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup, but had previously looked like a star in the making at Royal Ascot. Sired by the mighty Frankel and sporting the Wathnan Racing silks, French Master looked a class apart when powering to a 2½-length triumph in the Copper Horse Handicap. Nothing went to plan over 2m at Goodwood, but he’s back down to his best trip here and could go close under James Doyle.

Another to note for the home team is the Roger Varian course winner Shadow Dance. Lightly raced for a five-year-old, he claimed a 1m4f handicap at this meeting in 2024 and gets in off the same mark as when finishing a close second over 1m6½f at Doncaster. Likely to strip fitter for his recent comeback at Goodwood, he could be a popular each-way option at a double-figure price.

With 13 runners, compared to nine for the Irish, the home team boast the numerical advantage. Will that be enough to repel Mullins, O’Brien, and co.? The Ebor will run at 3:35pm on Saturday, a contest that is always one to savour.