York Betting Tips for Wednesday 17th May 2023 – Dante Festival Day 1 Preview

Get our day 1 betting tips of the 2023 York Dante Festival with the races featured being shown live on ITV Racing. Things get underway at 1.50pm and we have got betting tips for five of the races. 

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1:50 York

The opener of the Dante Meeting is the 1:50 and it is a competitive handicap over 1m4f with 17 runners set to go to post.

It’s LA YAKEL (3/1) NAP for me here. A progressive 3 year-old last season who won at Southwell in July before winning a decent handicap at Ascot on his next start. He was 4th in a few handicap on his final start at Newmarket but that was still a good effort. Haggas has a fine record in this contest and has won two of the last three renewals. He knows the type it takes to win this race and the early market vibes suggest he’s wintered well.

 

2:25 York

Next up is the 2:25 and it is another wide-open handicap, this time over 6f.

It’s DAKOTA GOLD (8/1) EW for me here. 9 years of age now but there was certainly enough promise in his seasonal reappearance at Pontefract to suggest the fire still burns bright. York suits his style well as it’s a speed favouring track and can often be hard for horses to make up ground, especially on quick ground. That’s proven by the fact he has six victories here including this race last year. The Michael Dods team have hit form after a slow start and he looks sure to run a big race.

 

3:00 York

The 3:00 race is the Group 2 Duke Of York Clipper Stakes again over 6f.

It’s MARSHMAN (9/2) for me here. He was a really promising 2-year old last season winning when well fancied to make a winning debut at Thirsk last July. He then won again as easy as you’d like at Thirsk before running a screamer at Group 2 level in the Gimcrack here at York pulling clear of the third. The third that day was Cold Case who has already won a decent race at Ascot this season. He was then 5th at Group 1 level in the Middle Park on his final start of the campaign in a deep race. He was well fancied for that going off 15/8f which says a lot about what connections think of him. He has made an encouraging seasonal reappearance winning at Chantilly. He looked like he would come on for that effort and returning to York is bound to suit this speedy sort.

 

3:35 York

The feature on day 1 is next up, the Group 3 Musidora Stakes for the 3 year-old fillies over the extended 1m2f.

A wide open race and all the fillies are open to significant improvement. Therefore, I’d be happy to chance EMPRESS WU (12/1) EW at a big price in this. She’s only had one career start but it was a really taken performance at Lingfield. She looked green that day and raced wide throughout but still managed to win by over 2L. She’ll improve a lot for that racing experience and she obviously has a ton of ability based on that debut. Her homework must have been good for her to be pitched in at this level on her second start and Jim Crowley rides this track well. She’ll do for me at the prices.

 

4:10 York

The 4:10 is the final race on ITV and it’s a trappy 7f handicap.

I like RAMAZAN (7/1) NB here for the Richard Fahey team. There’s plenty of pace on here and I’m hoping it suits a closer like Ramazan. He ran in several decent handicaps throughout his campaign last season and proved he’s well suited by this type of test. He is proven over 7f as he ran a cracker on his final 2 year-old start at the Curragh finishing a fine third in the competitive Goffs Million. He’s been gelded since and I think he’s a horse that’ll improve further this season. Richard Fahey is another trainer that’s been having a few good winners of late which is an obvious plus.

 

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