DANTE FESTIVAL SETS TONE FOR PRIZE MONEY INCREASES AT YORK

Action for the 2026 season at York Racecourse gets underway with the three-day Dante Festival with record prize money of over £1.6m starting on Wednesday 13 May.

The additional £55,000 invested in the opening fixtures will see every race worth a minimum of £30,000, meaning connections of horses entered in the competitive handicaps will have their reward.

Headline making boosts of £15,000 to a brace of Group Two contests, the Go Local Stores Minster Stakes (formerly known as the 1895 Duke of York Stakes) and Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Middleton Stakes will see the sprinters and older fillies/mares take their share of £165,000 prize funds.

It will set the tone for a record investment across the season of more than £12.5m in prize money, an increase of over £400,000 that is consistent with the commitment of the York Race Committee to support participants in the sport.

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

York Racecourse and Juddmonte are proud that the feature Group One of the season was rated as the Longines World’s Best Race in 2024 (as well as in 2014 & 2020), the record investment of £1,500,000 for this flagship race represents a 20% rise. This forms part of a wider initiative supported by the Levy Board to promote the global standing of feature races in high summer, also including the July Cup, Sussex Stakes and King George.

The Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes was won by juvenile of the year, the much-missed Gewan, last August, with the race having £15,000 added to a purse that is now worth £175,000. It is one of six August contests that have been raised in value for 2026, with all 28 races having a minimum £100,000 on offer.

Elsewhere over the eighteen days, the Group 3 William Hill Summer Stakes and Group Two Sky Bet York Stakes will benefit from five figure additions to their value. Indeed, every race on the Knavesmire will offer a minimum of £25,000 so serving a broad range of connections.

On the opening day of the season, Wednesday 13 May, the £165,000 Group 2 GO Local Stores Minster Stakes is the first of thirty races across the York season to offer black type. It is also the first of forty-four races which will have at least a six-figure purse and the first of 14 (2024: 12) designated Premier Racedays. A feature race for three-year-old fillies, the £130,000 Group 3 Tattersalls Musidora has proved to be a leading form indicator for the Betfred Oaks, with eight champion fillies now having gone on to achieve Classic glory. Typically, fillies from the Musidora return as older horses to contest the now £165,000 Group 2 Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Middleton Stakes on the Thursday of the Dante Festival.

This season it is eighty-one years since Dante left the Middleham yard of Matt Peacock to head south to become the last northern trained winner of the Derby. The colt lends his name to the feature race of the Festival, The Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Dante. This £180,000 Group Two contest is likely to attract colts capable of becoming the lucky twelfth thoroughbred to achieve the Knavesmire/Epsom double, with the most recent being Desert Crown in 2022.

Friday’s principal race is another worth £180,000, the Group 2 Boodles Yorkshire Cup, which sees the leading jewellery brand supporting the leading stayers over one mile and three-quarters.

A fully sponsored May programme includes a £40,000 novice race is 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 amongst twenty-two 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.

Despite this investment, all on the day admission prices at the Dante Festival have risen by less than inflation, often just by a £1, meaning admission to the Clocktower Enclosure remains just £10, with further age, group and advance concessions across the enclosures, starting at £24 for a group into Grandstand & Paddock. Car parking is free of charge; no booking fees are charged and racegoers into County Stand receive a complimentary racecard.

Further investment will also see the continuing improvements to the facilities for racegoers, connections and horses, not to mention a full programme of music and entertainment with bonus features across the 18 raceday season.