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Record prize money for Ebor Festival
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Published at 11:01am 31st July 2017. (Updated at 12:56pm 31st July 2017)
York Racecourse has announced an additional boost of £60,000 to the record prize money for its flagship meeting, the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival.
The meet, which is staged between Wednesday 23 and Saturday 26 August, sees a total of over £4.4 million on offer across for the four days. An increase of 50% in the last five years.
The feature race of the week, the Group 1 Juddmonte International, Britain’s highest rated race, according to the average three-year rating by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, will become the richest race ever run at York, with £1 million on offer.
22 races, out of the 25 to be staged, have seen an increase in prize fund since their 2016 running; with every contest on the opening and closing days set to be more valuable.
The Darley Yorkshire Oaks, ranked as Europe’s highest rated contest for fillies and mares, and the Coolmore Nunthorpe, the best five-furlong sprint in the world, will both see increases to reach their richest ever renewals at £350,000. The Sky Bet Lowther increases by £25,000 to £225,000 the same level as the Al Basti Equiworld Gimcrack making them Britain’s richest Group 2’s for juvenile fillies and colts, respectively.
Completing the feature race set in August is Saturday’s Betfred Ebor, with Europe’s richest flat handicap of 2016, increased again to £285,000.
York Racecourse Chairman, Lord Grimthorpe said:
“York is delighted that our continued commercial success in the first half of the season has allowed us to keep investing in the prize money, facilities and experience of racing at York.
The Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival is our flagship meeting and we look forward to welcoming the racegoers and supporters to York to see the world’s best horses and jockeys competing on the Knavesmire. It already looks set to be a fabulous four days of racing action.
Our continued thanks to our supporters and sponsors who help us to invest in racing at York.”
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