Ebor Festival: Dates, schedule, history & betting odds

The Ebor Festival is York's premier meeting of the year and takes place over four days in mid-August, mixing Group 1 action and the famous Ebor Handicap at the leading racecourse in the north of England.

The Knavesmire plays host to these four high-class days of racing, the last of the key British summer festivals of Flat action before autumn creeps in.

There is plenty of Group-race action, including the Juddmonte International, the Darley Yorkshire Oaks and the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes.

Racing icons such as Frankel (International Stakes 2012), Enable (Yorkshire Oaks 2017, 2019) and Baaeed (International Stakes 2022) have won here in recent times.

The festival is named after the Ebor Handicap, Europe's richest handicap flat race and the highlight of the final day.

The York Ebor Festival has been referred to as 'the Royal Ascot of the North' and it is one of the proudest of sporting traditions held annually in Yorkshire.

Ebor Festival date

In 2024, the Ebor Festival is scheduled to take place from Wednesday 21st August until Saturday 24th August.

Ebor Festival venue

The Ebor Festival is a four-day race meeting held at York Racecourse in North Yorkshire, England.

Located on the Knavesmire, it is the third biggest racecourse in Britain in terms of total prize money offered and second behind Ascot in prize money offered per meeting.

Ebor Festival how to watch

You can catch the entire Ebor Festival via the bet365 Sports Live Streaming platform, while it is also shown live on ITV in Britain, as well as dedicated subscription channel Racing TV.

Tickets to watch the event in person are available through York rcaecourse’s website.

Ebor Festival history

The Ebor Festival was established in 1843 with the first running of the Ebor Handicap. The first winner of the race was Pagan and since then it’s been a regular fixture on the racing calendar.

Each of the four days has feature races. Wednesday’s highlight is the Juddmonte International, while the same day also sees the Great Voltigeur Stakes and the Acomb Stakes take place.

Thursday is known as Ladies' Day and the racing highlights are the Lowther Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks, which is for fillies.

Friday features the Nunthorpe Stakes, the Gimcrack Stakes and the Strensall Stakes.

Saturday includes the big-money Ebor Handicap, as well as the Lonsdale Cup, which is for the stayers.

The 2008 Ebor Festival was abandoned after wet weather left the course waterlogged and unfit for racing. It was the first time in the event's history in which racing had to be scrapped due to poor weather.

As one of the last major race meetings of the flat season, it attracts racegoers from all over the world with the course now having a spectator capacity of 60,000.

Ebor Handicap most successful trainer

Tom Dawson is the leading trainer in Ebor Handicap history, having taken the prestigious race on five occasions with Godfrey (1844), Mark Tapley (1850), Pax (1860), Makeshift (1862), Mandrake (1867).

That will take some beating with Sir Michael Stoute, who last won the race in 1996 with Clerkenwell, having won the prize three times.

Gosden, Mullins and Johnny Murtagh have all won the race twice and will be hoping to bolster their tally in the years to come.

Ebor Handicap most successful jockey

Lester Piggott is the leading jockey in the Ebor Handicap with five wins: Gladness (1958), Primera (1959), Die Hard (1961), Tintagel II (1970) and Jupiter Island (1983).

Frankie Dettori, who has announced his retirement from British flat racing, has won the last two renewals of the Ebor Handicap, landing the spoils on Trawlerman for John & Thady Gosden in 2022 and following up in Absurde for Willie Mullins in 2023.

Ebor Handicap famous winners

There have been some memorable winners over the years and the most iconic winner of the Ebor Handicap is arguably Sea Pigeon.

Peter Easterby's charge won the race in 1979, but there were no TV cameras in place due to an ITV strike.

Sea Pigeon, as he usually did, eased off towards the line, meaning his backers had to wait for a photo finish to confirm his success.

In 2005, Sergeant Cecil added the Ebor Handicap to his CV. Rob Millman's stable star took 14 races to enter the winners' enclosure, but he ended his career as one of the best stayers of his generation.

In 2013, Tiger Cliff won the Ebor for Lady Cecil just months after her husband Sir Henry Cecil's death, in a race that the legendary trainer had planned for for months before his sad passing.