Dante Festival: All eyes on the bigger prizes on offer at York Racecourse

John and Thady Gosden have some real strength in depth this season among their three-year-old colts and fillies, but through the winter Legacy Link was always regarded as potentially one of the best.

That is because the last time she was seen in action she was running on strongly in the Fillies’ Mile, having either been caught flat-footed or become unbalanced in the dip.

Once she met the rising ground she really caught the eye after looking like she would drop away tamely.

With that in mind she should thrive over the extra two furlongs down the long Knavesmire straight – where a prize of £73,723 is on offer to the winner in a race worth £130,000 overall – and the Gosden team have always been aiming to bring her back here before hopefully heading to Epsom. The yard has an excellent record in the race, too.

Overall, York has thrown an extra £55,00 into the prize pot for this week’s three-day festival, meaning every race is worth a minimum of £30,000.

Wednesday’s biggest prize comes in the £165,000 Go Local Stores Minster Stakes, which is worth £93,752 to the winner and in which Richard Hannon’s Aramram – much improved this season and ridden again by Sean Levey – could be about to peak.

While several of his rivals will be using this as a stepping stone to Royal Ascot, Hannon’s hope has already had two runs this season and should be fighting fit.

He reappeared for his first run at five in the Listed Cammidge Trophy at Doncaster where he comfortably beat Jasour by a length.

That form probably needed improving on to consider him for a race like this but he was a bit of an unlucky loser in the Abernant at Newmarket, when the race developed away from him on the far side before he flashed home for second.

His last three runs have all been career bests and he might just catch a few of these cold at a fancy price.

The string of William Haggas has really clicked into gear in recent weeks and Klassleader can add another to his impressive strike-rate in the Sky Bet Race To The Ebor Jorvik Handicap.

It is a well worn cliche that Haggas loves nothing more than a winner at York, when in fact that is true of all trainers as the prize-money is so good, but Haggas does seem to target the meetings there.

A winner of one of his four races to date, he has so much more scope to improve this season than many of his rivals.

Back down at a mile and a half for this first run of the season, it will be very surprising if he does not end the campaign rated higher than his current mark of 90.

Binhareer also holds sound claims for the same Haggas-Tom Marquand combination in the Churchill Tyres Handicap.

He was last seen winning over the same course and distance in the Coral Sprint Trophy in October and while he reappears off a 10lb higher mark, rarely do you see a £100,000 race won with such authority.

York’s commitment to offering more prize money sets the tone for a record investment across the season of more than £12.5m in prize money, an overall increase of over £400,000.

It is part of an ongoing strategy to invest in the race programme and saw a record number of runners at York in 2025 with the highest average field size of any racecourse in Britain.

In addition, a fully sponsored May programme includes a £40,000 novice race supported by both the European Breeders’ Fund and Darley, who are backing a valuable series of such maiden or novice contests over the summer.

It is among 22 races at York to be backed by the EBF, including the £100,000 Final of the series for juvenile colts & geldings, set for Friday 9 October.