Great St Wilfrid returns to Ripon for Yorkshire’s biggest sprint day
The £100,000 handicap headlines Ripon’s showpiece card on Saturday, with William Hill marking 30 years of sponsorship
Ripon stages its biggest day of the season on Saturday, and as ever the William Hill Great St Wilfrid is the centrepiece – one of two ITV features that afternoon, alongside the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes at Newbury down south. The six-furlong handicap, run down the track’s straight course, is one of the most competitive sprints of the Yorkshire summer and routinely draws a big, well-matched field.
There is history riding on it too. This year marks 30 years of William Hill’s sponsorship of a race that has become a fixture of the northern calendar, worth £100,000 on its own and part of a card that carried around £215,000 in prize money 12 months ago.
Recent winners and a Yorkshire stronghold
Recent winners give a sense of how open it tends to be. Intervention took last year’s renewal at 16-1 under apprentice William Pyle for Mick Appleby, a year after Richard Fahey’s Dare To Hope had landed the prize. Yorkshire yards have long dominated the roll of honour, and the strength of the local sprinting division usually ensures a fierce finish.
With the final field, weights and riders confirmed closer to the day, the Great St Wilfrid should once again provide one of the trickiest and most absorbing betting puzzles of the month. It also marks the start of a busy spell for the northern sprinting division: York’s Nunthorpe follows at the Ebor Festival the same week, before the season’s richest sprint prize, the Ayr Gold Cup, in September.
The essentials:
- When: Saturday 15 August 2026, Ripon (first race 13:45 BST)
- Race: William Hill Great St Wilfrid Handicap – Class 2, 6f (straight)
- Prize: £100,000 (feature); ~£215,000 across the raceday last year
- TV: Live on ITV (ITV1); feature off 15:25 BST
- Recent winners: Intervention (2025, W. Pyle); Dare To Hope (2024, R. Fahey)
Updated 16.08, [16:28]: Great St Wilfrid result. Royal Zabeel (17-2) landed the William Hill/MND Association Great St Wilfrid at Ripon, giving owners The Horse Watchers back-to-back wins in the race after Intervention 12 months ago – and a second successive success for trainer Mick Appleby. Ridden by Jason Watson, who elected to race with the main group, he beat I’m Next by two and three-quarter lengths, with Lord Roxby third. Fourteen ran on good ground (good to firm in places), with the winner collecting £51,540.
