We covered every race of the Ebor festival, day by day, as it happened. The full analysis is in those 4 reviews: day 1, day 2, day 3 and Ebor day.
This piece is free, and it is the bit that matters most: the horses we came out of the week actually wanting to be on. Not the winners, mostly. The ones the result sheet does not describe properly.
Two for the Cesarewitch
Beylerbeyi
Beylerbeyi stayed on into 5th in the Ebor itself at 20/1, over a trip a long way short of his best, and he was doing his best work at the finish.
Nothing got past him that had no business doing so, and his mark has not moved. He won the Cesarewitch at Newmarket last October over 2m2f off a mark of 91 and he is rated 101 now, which is the point: 10lb higher than his winning mark, the market will use those 10lb as a reason to leave him alone, and he should be a considerably bigger price than he would have been off 91. October, at Newmarket, at a price.
Kirchner
Sent off 4/1 in the stayers' handicap on day 1 and got much too far back. Ryan Moore had already given up and was pushing hands and heels when he switched to the near side late, and from there he ran on strongly. He should have been 5th and was not, because the riding stopped before the horse did.
Only 4 starts in this country, so a mark of 97 need not be his ceiling. He wants a truly run staying handicap, and the Cesarewitch is the obvious target for him too.
Three that were unlucky, and one of them is a bet
Devil's Peak
This is the one we feel strongest about. Devil's Peak was 6th in the Melrose at 50/1, denied 5th on the line by the 105-rated Limestone, having been held up on the wrong side of the track.
Two things make him more than a hard luck story. It was his first run off the 4lb rise we called stiff at the time, in a Class 2 worth £92,772. And Into The Light, the horse who beat him at Goodwood, ran in the same race off a mark 10lb higher and finished 15th. Devil's Peak beat him by 9 places at 50/1.
Put him in a Class 3 with a strong jockey and he is a winner waiting to happen.
Coul Angel
Coul Angel was 3rd at 16/1 in the Constantine, drawn 20, and covered a great deal more ground than the pair who beat him.
We had argued beforehand that his 2nd in the Sky Bet Dash at 33/1 was badly overlooked, and this settled it. Stratusnine, who beat him that day, was 6th here. Air Force One was 8th. Red Spells Danger, a winner at Ascot since, was 17th. He finished in front of all 3.
God Given Talent
4th in a nursery in which nobody got a clean run. He was butchered at the back, never saw daylight when it mattered, and then motored home once he did. It was his first start for William Haggas under Tom Marquand, and he was dropping in class.
Everyone will come out of that race talking about the 3rd. Far fewer noticed this one. His new mark, and a race where he gets a clear run, is all he needs.
Two sprinters with a target
Manatee Mehmas
2nd at 10/1 on his first run in a tongue strap, and the eyecatcher of day 1. In a 5f handicap where the winner made all and the 3rd and 4th were prominent throughout, he was the only horse to come from off the pace and land a blow, and he did it without a clear run at the crucial point.
He was still going away at the line over the minimum trip, so 6f next time looks the obvious move, and he remains lightly exposed.
The Man
Beaten into 7th off 89 after racing on the far side, which was demonstrably the wrong place to be all afternoon. He was 2nd in the same race last year off 92, so the mark is going the right way even if the bare form reads plainly. The 5f handicap at York in September looks made for him, and the handicapper may take another pound or 2 off him before then.
Two for later
One For Bruce
Our Top Rated on debut and 3rd at 5/2 in a 6f novice at Newmarket, and he was stopped when going best. Walkin On The Moon began retreating in front of him and, rather than switching off his heels, Robert Havlin let him run up into the back of the beaten horse and stopped riding. He was going again by the line. With a clear run we think he wins that, and he will have learned a great deal from it.
Hatteen
Not flagged off a run of his own, but off the horse who beat him. We opposed our own Top Rated, Infraad, with Hatteen at Goodwood in July. Infraad held him, but Hatteen travelled all over him and we still think he should have won.
Infraad has since come to York and won the Class 2 Melrose worth £92,772, and he looks a Group horse in waiting. That makes the Goodwood form read a great deal better than it did. Hatteen has not run since and is rated 88, having won off 82 at Doncaster in July.
One for the brave
Command The Stars
He finished 6th in the mile handicap on day 3 at a whopping 40/1, and went off around 100.0 on the exchanges. He travelled strongly, clipped heels and stumbled after about a furlong, and never got a clear run when it mattered.
He is hard to place because he has been campaigned in France and does not look unexposed. He may well pop up winning across the Channel and we never see him here again. But if they find him a race over here, particularly a Class 3 with a big field, he could be a far bigger price than he deserves.
Where these go next
Everything above sits in our tracker, which is where we keep the horses we have flagged and what we are waiting for with each one, so nothing gets quietly forgotten when it turns up 3 weeks later at Wolverhampton.
The race by race analysis behind all of this is in the 4 reviews: day 1, day 2, day 3 and Ebor day, where our top 3 rated horses filled the first 3 places in the Ebor itself.
If you want the ratings that found them, the first race of every day is free to everybody.