2025 York Ebor Festival: Memorable Moments

Excitement and anticipation for the 2025 York Ebor Festival, and here we look back at some of the most memorable moments.

The York Ebor Festival is one of the most historic race meetings in the world and has a history that spans more than 180 years. Another chapter of the meeting’s history is about to be written in 2025, with the racing set to get underway on Wednesday 20th August. This will be the first of four enthralling days of world-class racing that is set to capture the imagination of fans from around the world.

Anticipation is growing, and there is a great chance of memorable moments this year. Before the action gets underway, let’s look back at some of the most memorable moments from past meetings.

Firstly, let’s rewind back to 2012 and to that year’s Group 1 Juddmonte International, which was the penultimate race of the career of legendary horse Frankel. The son of Galileo, Frankel won all of his fourteen career starts, earning him legendary status in the sport, and deservedly so. These victories were by a combined margin of 76 ¼ lengths.

Frankel was the favourite for the Juddmonte International and spent a significant portion of the race near the back of the field. But with two furlongs to go, Frankel made going through the field look effortless, winning the race by an incredible margin of seven lengths.

Whilst Frankel only raced at York once, Stradivarius was a regular at the racecourse, running there no less than 35 times over the course of six years. Back in 2021, Stradivarius ran again in the Lonsdale Cup, winning the race for the third consecutive time after securing victory by a head.

Borderlescott had won handicaps at York off marks of 92 and 97 but would not return for another 30 races. After winning the Nunthorpe at York by a neck ahead of Benbaun in 2009, Borderlescott officially became the first horse to win the Nunthorpe at two different racecourses. Victory had also been secured in the Nunthorpe at Newmarket before heading to York.

One further memorable moment occurred back in the 2019 Yorkshire Oaks. Enable, trained by John Gosden, was the favourite ahead of Aiden O’Brien’s Magical. The field was led by Enable, who fended off the challenge from Magical to win the race by a margin of two and three-quarter lengths, securing victory in the final half furlong.

These are just some of the most memorable moments from previous York Festival meetings, and now we look ahead to the return of the festival on Wednesday, where more iconic moments are set to take place.

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