Aidan O’Brien with Ernest Hemingway to nail the Betfred Dante Stakes at York
The Group 2 Betfred Dante Stakes will be staged at York over a mile, two furlongs and eighty-eight yards on Thursday, 17th May. The race has assembled a highly versatile line-up of seven runners while the prize money set for the winner is £85,065.
Some highly prominent entries for the race are Andrew Balding trained Bonfire, Aidan O’Brien’s under charge Ernest Hemingway, Fencing trained by John Gosden and last but not the least Mahmood Al Zarooni conditioned Mandaean.
By far the most threatening candidate on the line-up is Ernest Hemingway who is under the guidance of the Qipco 1000 Guineas and Qipco 2000 Guineas winning trainer, Aidan O’Brien.
During the last six years, the trainer has won the Dante Stakes thrice. In 2006 he won the Stakes with Septimus, Black Bear Island brought him the title in 2009 and the winner for 2010 was Cape Blanco.
Last year however it was won by Sir Michael Stoute trained Carlton House. This year the trainer has no entries for the Dante Stakes.
Galileo’s three-year-old bay colt out of mare, Cassydora, won his career debut in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund 3YO Maiden at Dundalk over a mile and two and a half furlong on 13th April.
Riding with the hall mark trainer’s son, Joseph O’Brien, Ernest Hemingway won the maiden by an amazing ten lengths.
Hes Our Music settled in second while the 15/8 favourite of the race, Handazan, ended seventh on the track of ten.
Very few thoroughbreds get the chance of racing a graded race through the very next (second) career start but Ernest Hemingway is already strong on his way to being lucky. The distance is almost the same as his career debut and once again he will be ridden
by J. O’Brien.
The competition that he will face today is really tough with Andrew Balding and Mahmood Al Zarooni over the moon about their entries both of whom will be racing their seasonal debut today.
The Dante Stakes have proved to be a deep insight for the brightest of the prospects for the Derby, as not once or twice but thrice the Derby has been won by the champions of the Dante Stakes. Thus whoever gets to win the challenge today already is set for
an entirely new league.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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