Fabulous Frankel and brilliant Battaash - our team's best memories from the Ebor festival

The Ebor festival begins on Wednesday and ahead of an enthralling four days of racing on the Knavesmire our team have provided their favourite memories from previous Ebor meetings.

Frankel fever delivers on the Knavesmire, 2012

Rarely can a day's racing have been more about one horse, rarely can that horse have made so many happy by living up to his billing.

You could tell it was a special occasion from the 'Go Frankel' table tennis bat-style promotional favours handed out on Juddmonte International afternoon in 2012.

Frankel: brilliant in the Juddmonte International in 2012Credit: Mark Cranham

Anyone and everyone had come to see the phenomenon. Even former 10,000m runner Brendan Foster, fresh from the Olympics.

"I've just watched the greatest athletes in the world and I wanted to see how this one shaped up," he said.

Racegoers crowded six-deep round the pre-parade ring to see Frankel even while the Great Voltigeur was being run.

Never did you see so many people down at the 1m2f start. They had little chance of seeing the finish but knew what had happened from the sound of the crowd.

The race went pretty much like most of Frankel's previous ones. He simply laughed at a high-class field. But it is not often that you hear three cheers for a returning horse or for his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, heroic in the face of serious illness. What a day.
David Carr

Palatial Style gives me a good payday in the Andy Capp Handicap, 1991 

A new independent betting shop had recently opened within half a mile of my house in Sutton, Surrey. Good competition for Ladbrokes and William Hill. I thought I’d try it out.

The cashier did not raise an eyebrow when I produced a betting slip of £300 win on Palatial Style at 12-1. No panic calls to head office. No knock backs. He just put my six fifty pound notes into the till. 

Palatial Style bolted up at 8-1. The result was never in doubt after he had breezed into the lead at the top of the straight.

Twenty minutes after he had crossed the line, I was back in the shop. The cashier counted out £3,900 in fifties and twenties, and said “well done”.

Two weeks later I went back to my ‘lucky’ shop. It was shut. Closed forever.
Richard Birch

Battaash blitzes his Nunthorpe field, 2019

The day Battaash won the 2019 Nunthorpe was when he was at his best and the brazen speed he displayed was a joy to watch, especially as it put to bed the theory he did not like York.

Twice he had gone there and finished underwhelming fourth, but Charlie Hills was convinced he had the bullet sprinter in top order and was spot on.

Battaash smashes the track record in the NunthorpeCredit: Edward Whitaker

Close up, he led from two out and powered clear to win by three and three-quarter lengths, shattering the 5f course record in the process.

One only had to look back at Ryan Moore pushing away on Ten Sovereigns, who had just bolted up in the July Cup, to see how quickly the brilliant Battaash had flashed to victory.

Not bad for a horse some thought did not like York.
James Burn

Pigeon poo fiasco leads to winning Galtres bet, 2009

One of the very best things about going racing on the Knavesmire during Ebor week is the walk from the city centre to the racecourse. 

Just 24 hours on from Sea The Stars adding the 2009 Juddmonte International to his growing list of victories, little seemed capable of dampening my mood. 

That was until one of Yorkshire’s finest pigeons took dead aim from some height and splattered the contents of its breakfast all down my suit jacket. 

Thanks to the quick thinking of the Racing Post’s former news editor and video supremo, Rob Watson, we diverted to his friend Sonja’s kitchen, which was ten minutes from the track.

Not only were miracles performed in cleaning the jacket, but Sonja – an air stewardess who rode out on her days off for Ferdy Murphy – cooked us bacon, sausage and egg. 

Every good turn deserves another and I duly placed a tenner for my saviour on John Oxx’s other runner at the meeting, Tanoura, who went on to deny Sir Michael Stoute’s Leocorno in a driving finish to the Galtres Stakes. 

I have never yet retold the story without someone saying that a pigeon deposit is good luck. There may be something in it after all.
Scott Burton

One So Wonderful beats Faithful Son and Chester House in an International thriller, 1998

What a race. While none of the principals could be considered outstanding performers, all three contributed to a memorable battle in which there was just a short head and a short head between them. 

Kieren Fallon appeared to have delivered the talented, lovable, but frustrating Chester House to perfection in his bid to land a first Group 1 only for first Faithful Son, and then One So Wonderful, to fight back near the line.

As they went past the post it briefly looked like Frankie Dettori had conjured an unlikely success from the front-running Faithful Son, who had been headed, but the result went One So Wonderful's way.

That turned out to be Chester House’s last run in Britain for Sir Henry Cecil, but he did get his Grade 1 in America the following season when he was trained by the great Bobby Frankel.

He was of course the man after whom the great Cecil-trained Frankel was named.
Graeme Rodway

Faith repaid by the best seven-furlong horse in the world, 2022

Kinross had been hitting the crossbar throughout the early stages of his career and his believers (myself included) knew that he had a top-quality performance in him.

He arrived at the Ebor festival for the City of York Stakes in 2022 after finishing a neck second behind Sandrine at Glorious Goodwood just three weeks earlier, and she was standing in his way again on the Knavesmire. Frankie Dettori sat patiently on his mount and with two furlongs left to travel he seemed to find an extra gear that we hadn't seen before. 

Dettori threaded the gap between Pogo and the rail and pushed Kinross out with hands and heels to win cosily at an attractive 5-1. Our faith was repaid. 

He went on to win the Park Stakes, Prix de la Foret and the Sprint on British Champions Day within seven weeks and cemented his status as one of the best seven-furlong horses in the world.
Charlie Sharp

Read these next:

'This test appears perfect for him' - why this horse can win at York's Ebor festival 

2023 Juddmonte International at York: the runners, the odds, the verdict 

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