- Magical Zoe won Britain’s most valuable flat handicap race on Saturday
- Best known as a hurdler, the 11-2 favourite won the £300,000 Ebor Handicap.
- Magical Zoe’s trainer Henry de Bromhead said: “This is brilliant, amazing.”
The scene seemed more like Cheltenham than York. There was Henry de Bromhead being showered with congratulations by his boisterous owners, while he happily stroked the neck of a mare who had spent most of her life jumping fences.
No-one would have been surprised if this had been a major National Hunt festival in the spring but there was De Bromhead, a trainer whose CV includes successes in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National, breaking new ground.
The Ebor is Europe’s richest flat handicap, worth £300,000 to the winner, but it was turned into a procession by Magical Zoe, who landed an old-fashioned bet as convincingly as you could wish to see.
Available at 16-1 three weeks ago, Magical Zoe was leveraged at 11-2 and became the first winning favourite since Purple Moon forced her in 2007. Kihavah and Oneforthegutter, a pair of 25/1 shots, followed her home.
A trip to the Melbourne Cup is now on the cards. “We’ll see how it goes first,” said De Bromhead, before being told that Patrick and Scott Bryceland, the Scottish owners of Magical Zoe, had already booked their tickets to travel to Australia.
Magical Zoe won the Ebor Handicap on day four of the Ebor Festival at York Racecourse
Winning jockey William Lee pictured celebrating after riding Magical Zoe to victory at York
Queen Camilla (left) pictured with winning trainer Henry de Bromhead (right) on Saturday
“So I probably have nothing to say!” he continued laughing. “This is brilliant, amazing. I grew up watching this race, I never for a minute thought I would ever win it, but the team have done a brilliant job.”
It’s De Bromhead’s way of diverting attention, but his ability to aim for a race and hit the target is second to none. He’d only had one runner at York before and that one won too – Terms Of Endearment took the Bronte Cup in May. No wonder he called it “my new favourite course”.
“We’re so excited,” Patrick Bryceland said. “But this win is for Henry, his wife Heather and their daughters, Mia and Georgia. They’re a family that means the world to so many people (after tragically losing their son, Jack) and we can’t thank them enough.
‘He’s a wonderful mare trainer and we started planning this after she ran in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham.
‘Adrian Heskin rides our horses over jumps and he said to us: “I’m running out of work, but you have to put her on the flat, they’re not going fast enough for her over jumps.” It’s incredible.’
With that, Bryceland stepped onto the podium to receive his trophy from Queen Camilla. This was the first royal visit to the racecourse since 2015 – he was there to inaugurate the new Bustardthorpe Development, York’s newest grandstand. He also had one runner, but Reaching High, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, only got one over the head in the Melrose Handicap after getting himself into a bit of a mess early on.
However, none of that diluted her enthusiasm. As a racing fan, she would have fully understood the emotions that swept through De Bromhead, the Brycelands and jockey Billy Lee after the Ebor race, which had a sad postscript when Crystal Delight died during the race.
“When you get these good horses, it makes everything a little bit easier,” De Bromhead said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a jumps race or a flat race. These are the days you want.”