York Dante Festival starts today

York´s 3-day Dante Festival starts today, always one of the best meetings of the year and featuring important classic trials for the Oaks and Derby. Today´s main feature is the Musidora Stakes for 3yo fillies over 10 furlongs + at 16.45, but it has only a small field of 5 runners, and of them only two look likely to be serious Oaks contenders- Together Forever (Aidan O´Brien/ Ryan Moore) and Star of Seville (John Gosden/ Frankie Dettori). Together Forever is penalised as she won the Fillies Mile last autumn and has not run since; she is difficult to assess as the form of that race does not look brilliant and the inconsistent form of some of O´Brien´s top 3yo´s is also a cause for concern - especially as he has never won this race despite plenty of tries. Gosden however has taken it 3 times and we easily prefer his filly, a good winner at Newbury last month. It is difficult to make a case for the others, although Pandora (Charlie Hills/ William Buick), an easy winner of a Doncaster maiden in March could be worth a try in this much better company.

The other big race here is the Group Two Duke of York Stakes over 6 furlongs at 16.15. This has a big field and looks tricky, as there are some unexposed types running who could well go on to much better things. Lightning Moon (Ed Walker/ Buick) for example, winner of all his 3 starts last season and now running in Godolphin´s blue colours. Muthmir (William Haggas/ Paul Hanagan) finished last year with a convincing win in a top handicap, while Naadirr (Marco Botti/ Martin Harley) was also very progressive and has started off 2015 with a listed win over Astaire, who went on to win a similar event at Newmarket. French challenger Gammarth (Henri-Alex Pantall/ Dettori), runner-up in the Benazet-Rennen at Baden-Baden last year and in the Goldene Peitsche the previous season, also has a chance, but on the whole we prefer Naadirr.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Mahsoob - Field Of Fame - First Flight
2. Race: Polybius - Tatlisu - Bogart
3. Race: Astaire - Naadirr - Muthmir
4. Race: Together Forever - Pandora - Amaze Me
5. Race: Foreign Diplomat - Mount Tahan - King To Be
6. Race: Dheban - Black Magic - Ravenhoe
7. Race: Osaruveetil - Libran - Gabrial The Duke