Golden ticket on offer in the Ebor Handicap

The final day of the famous carnival features the Ebor Handicap (2816m), which is as traditional a guide to the Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) as any race run north of the equator and offers a golden ticket entry into the race that stops a nation®.

The 2816-metre event might be yet to throw a Cup winner, but several have shaken the life out of it.

Ebor winners Purple Moon (2007) and Heartbreak City (2016) both ran second at Flemington, while Bauer (2008) and Prince Of Arran (2019) used the Ebor as a stepping stone to a trip to the Melbourne Cup runner-up stall.

Now, a Lexus Melbourne Cup ballot exemption is also attached to Ebor success and Racing And Sports Head Of Handicapping, and international expert, Adam Blencowe said you only need to look back 12 months as a mark of its influence.

“It feels like it has been a matter of time for a mighty long time, but the Ebor remains one of the key points on the path to Flemington,” Blencowe said.

“Sea King and Onesmoothoperator joined the growing list of swings and misses last year, but both landed key local trials emphatically to remind us of the Ebor’s place.”

Sea King, who finished sixth at York, ambled home in the Group 3 Bendigo Cup (2400m), with eventual Lexus Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice more than five lengths behind, and seventh placegetter Onesmoothoperator was almost as emphatic a winner of the Group 3 Geelong Cup (2400m).

Trainer Brian Ellison has hinted Onesmoothoperator could return, while Spring Carnival regular Willie Mullins is also planning another trip south, with his two Ebor runners – Hipop De Loire and Ethical Diamond – featuring in Lexus Melbourne Cup markets.

Blencowe is particularly interested in the performance of Hipop De Loire, whose Melbourne aspirations needed to be put on hold 12 months after emerging from last year’s Ebor with nothing but a hard-luck tale.

The only two starts since for the eight-year-old, a son of American Post who was bred in France and started his racing career in Poland, have yielded a fourth placing in the Listed Lenebane Stakes (2414m) at Roscommon and an 11-length win under 75.5kg in a 4425-metre Galway Hurdle.

“Anyone who goes back and watches last year’s race will have no trouble spotting his Hipop De Loire, who perhaps should have won his way to Flemington right there and then,” Blencowe said.

“He takes the conventionally unconventional path of waiting 12 months and landing a Galway maiden hurdle into this year’s Ebor where he will run as favourite before coming our way with a profile that is going to take some assessing. The safe bet is that he will be bet.”

Hipop De Loire is $4.50 favourite from $9 chances Ethical Diamond and the Karl Burke-trained French Master, winner of the Copper Horse Stakes (2816m) at Royal Ascot, while his Wathnan Racing-owned stablemate Almosh’her has been touted as a likely traveller should he win.

“French Master looks pretty on paper, but Almosh’her might be the one more likely to look this way after the Ebor, for which he will need a clear career-best, but is about as untapped as they get,” Blencowe said.

“He’s never looked the finished product but still managed to slip up to a Timeform rating of 110 with a trio of wins.”

Almosh’her, a four-year-old son of Sea The Stars, has started just five times for three wins and has not stepped out since Royal Ascot, where he finished 12^th in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes won by Ethical Diamond.

The Ebor Handicap will be run at 12.35am Sunday, AEST.