‘It Feels Like We’ve Chased the End of the Rainbow and Found It’: William Derby on City of York Upgrade Bid

It was said to be a source of “great disappointment” to the BHA’s Flat Pattern Committee that its partners in Europe could not unanimously agree on an upgrade to the G2 Sky Bet City of York Stakes back in February. Had the application been approved by the European Pattern Committee (EPC), it would have seen the the race become the only Group 1 to be run over seven furlongs in Britain.

This was no hit-and-hope attempt by York to attain that status, rather the culmination of a 12-year-plan, in conjunction with the BHA and EPC, which has seen the City of York Stakes rise from a £50,000 Listed race in 2012 to its current Group 2 status and prize-money pot of £500,000.

“That was the genesis of where we are today, from the examination of the European summer programme and the need for a seven-furlong Group 1 before the [Prix de la] Foret in the autumn,” says York’s chief executive and clerk of the course William Derby.

“That was felt to be a race-planning need and the City of York at the Ebor Festival was identified to be the right slot for that race. It has taken a dozen years of investment and support and sequential upgrades, and at every stage the race has justified its upgrade based on ratings.

“We were thrilled this time last year when the City of York met its parameters for upgrade from Group 2 to Group 1 in that its three-year average was above 115, and in 2023 its rating was above 115, which are the two parameters to get upgraded.

“That is very difficult to achieve when you are a Group 2 because a lot of the top horses won’t run because it’s a Group 2. It feels like we’ve chased the end of the rainbow and found it.”

In the last three years, the City of York has been won by Godolphin’s Space Blues (Ire), who beat Highfield Princess (Fr) in 2021 before going on to win the G1 Prix de la Foret and G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile in the ensuing three months.

Kinross (GB), who is also a dual Group 1 winner, has won the race in the following two years, with the race achieving a rating of 115.5 in 2022 and 2023. Kinross is currently second-favourite for this year’s City of York Stakes, with his runner-up last year, the subsequent G1 Lockinge Stakes winner Audience (GB), having been installed as favourite ahead of declarations on Thursday morning.

“We hoped that that was enough, having reached those two difficult parameters, and that we might have been upgraded for this year, but that wasn’t to be,” says Derby. “But we are very determined to continue this journey and hope that the logic of the seven-furlong Group 1 race in Europe in the summer remains. We were delighted to see the strength of the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest in Deauville several weeks ago and that absolutely shows that the two races can co-exist happily and successfully, fulfilling different race-planning needs.”

While the team at York awaits this year’s race in the hope of another strong ratings performance, it can look forward to three Group 1 races this week amid a programme of 28 races across the four days of the Sky Bet Ebor Festival worth a record £6.85 million in prize-money. The one which will undoubtedly draw the greatest attention is Wednesday’s G1 Juddmonte International Stakes, featuring a field of 13 which includes the first and second home in the Derby, City Of Troy and Ambiente Friendly (Ire), along with the top mare Bluestocking (GB), French raiders Calandagan (Fr) and Zarakem (Fr), and Japanese St Leger winner Durezza (Jpn).

Derby says, “It’s the richest race that we have ever staged at £1.25 million and we are hugely appreciative of the support of Juddmonte and of York Race Committee. We think it’s the largest field since it was inaugurated in 1972 as a race. To get such a high-quality field which pulls together so many strands – whether it is the three-year-olds taking on the older horses, or the fillies taking on the colts, or the international formlines – it’s everything we want our flagship race to be really.”

He continues, “We are thrilled and honoured that Durezza has come. We were very impressed when he won the Kikuka Sho last autumn. He arrived at the racecourse [on Monday] and has already been out on the track this morning. We’re also delighted that Christophe Lemaire is coming to ride him. He’s one of the world’s best jockeys and it fulfils one of our long-term strategies to get a top-class Japanese horse to run. We had Zenno Rob Roy in 2005, and he was just touched off in the Juddmonte International, and then Cheval Grand in 2019.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan with Nick Smith and Ed Arkell as a joint strategy with Ascot and Goodwood, and Naohiro Goda has been a great friend and ally in this. The race will be live on the Green Channel in Japan on Wednesday evening and race fans in Japan will be able to bet on the race.

“We’re also thrilled to have the two French runners as well as, from Ireland, City Of Troy, who was such an impressive two-year-old and Derby winner.”