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Musidora Stakes the feature event on York's opening day
Good afternoon from the Knavesmire on the first day of the 2025 season at York racecourse, when the Musidora Stakes (3.45) – the last of the traditional trials for next month’s Oaks at Epsom – is the feature race on the card.
Three of the six fillies – Smoken, Whirl and Go Go Boots – have an entry in the Classic, and all have something to recommend them. Whirl looks to extend Aidan O’Brien’s remarkable run of form in Epsom Classic trials over the last 10 days, Smoken was unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile including a very warm Listed event in November, and Go Go Boots is from the John & Thady Gosden stable, which has won this race eight times already.
All three are currently priced up at around 33-1 for the Oaks, but a striking success this afternoon would inevitably prompt a sharp cut in their Classic odds. Secret Satire, a shock Musidora winner 12 months ago, did not get the trip at Epsom but the previous three winners of this trial included two Oaks winners – Soul Sister and Snowfall – and an Epsom runner-up, Emily Upjohn, who was denied by a nose after no luck in running.
So it is a race to take seriously as a pointer toward Epsom and elsewhere, and so too is the Duke Of York Stakes at 3.13. Three of the last four winners – Starman, Millstream and Highfield Princess – went on to win Group Ones later the same season, and four of today’s runners had high-class form as three-year-olds in 2024 with the promise of better still to come in their four-year-old campaigns.
Three typically competitive handicaps complete the ITV Racing coverage from York, the official going is good to firm, good in places, and the action is underway at 2.10 with the Jorvik Handicap, something of an early trial for the Ebor – Europe’s richest handicap on the Flat – back here at the August meeting.
Preamble
Tony Paley
Greg is at York and will be with you shortly for today’s live blog on the opening day of this year’s Dante meeting. Tomorrow features the Dante Stakes itself, usually a very key Derby trial and this morning we had the Jockey Club announcement that next month’s Epsom Classic on 7 June will be run in honour of the late Aga Khan IV.
A prolific breeder and owner, the famous racehorse owner came from a line of great racing enthusiasts and was successful in the Derby on five occasions, witnessing Shergar win the race by a record 10 lengths in 1981, followed by victories for Shahrastani (1986), Kahyasi (1988), Sinndar (2000) and Harzand (2016).
The Aga Khan’s daughter, Princess Zahra, said: “My family and I are incredibly grateful to Epsom and the Jockey Clubfor running the race in honour of my father.
“The Derby is an iconic event that he deeply loved and winning it for the first time with Shergar brought him immense pride and joy. It gave him the sense that the work his father and grandfather had accomplished with the breeding operation was being carried forward.
“He eventually matched the record of my great-grandfather when Harzand secured his fifth Derby victory – a wonderful achievement.”
