Sky Bet City of York Stakes
Group 1, York 15:00
£600,000 guaranteed,
3yo plus,
7f, Class 1    
Saturday 23rd August 2025

BoyleSports

From shocker to stage two: Sussex Stakes sensation Qirat is heading to York. Supplemented late for Goodwood purely as a hare for Field Of Gold, Ralph Beckett’s four-year-old tore up the script at 150-1 — the biggest-priced Group One winner of modern times.

Juddmonte forked out £70,000 for that supposed cameo, and now they’ve signed another cheque — £40,000 — to see him line up here, in a race that steps up to top-level billing for the first time.

“It looks the right race for him and Ralph felt strongly about it,” said Barry Mahon, Juddmonte’s racing manager.

“The owners are happy to go along with it, he showed plenty of pace in the Sussex and while a mile is his optimum, I don’t think he’ll have any problem dropping back to seven.”

And if York needed more spice, it’s likely to get the sequel everyone wants. Richard Hannon has rerouted Rosallion, the colt who came up a neck short of Qirat at Goodwood, and the pair are set to clash again.

Mahon added: “It looks like we could meet Rosallion again and we know he’s a top-class horse, but he obviously had a little issue last week which stopped him from running in France. We’re looking forward to taking him on again and hopefully we’ll be able to maintain our position from Goodwood.”

Elsewhere, Hugo Palmer has paid up for Seagulls Eleven, fresh from his own Goodwood success in Group Three company. Andrew Balding’s Never So Brave arrives off a Summer Mile victory, while Maranoa Charlie crosses the Channel to fly the flag for Bond Thoroughbreds.

Lake Forest, Audience, Exactly, Quinault and Annaf complete a field of 10 — a contest crackling with intrigue, but all eyes once again will fall on the once-unwanted pacemaker who has become the headline act.

Sky Bet City of York Stakes (Group 2)
£600,000 guaranteed, 3yo plus, 7f, Class 1
10 runners
Going: Good to Firm, Good in places

NO. (DRAW) FORM HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER JOCKEY
1 (9) 330270 Annaf 6 9-8 Michael Appleby Rossa Ryan
2 (6) 40-973 Audience 6 9-8 John & Thady Gosden Robert Havlin
3 (8) 1-4562 Lake Forest 4 9-8 William Haggas Tom Marquand
4 (7) 20-211 Never So Brave 4 9-8 Andrew Balding Oisin Murphy
5 (3) 22-201 Qirat 4 9-8 Ralph Beckett Colin Keane
6 (5) -37014 Quinault 5 9-8 Stuart Williams Jason Hart
7 (11) 11-322 Rosallion 4 9-8 Richard Hannon Sean Levey
9 (4) 4-1412 Maranoa Charlie 3 9-3 Christopher Head Aurelien Lemaitre
10 (1) 0-0621 Seagulls Eleven 3 9-3 Hugo Palmer William Buick
11 (10) 1-2465 Exactly 3 9-0 A P O'Brien Ryan Moore
NR 8 (2) Ten Bob Tony 8 4 9-8 Ed Walker NON RUNNER