Pattern will be weaker if races like Lennox gain Group 1 status
York's wonderful Ebor festival will soon be upon us.
We should never wish our time away but nor is it easy to be overly excited about the pre-Knavesmire Saturday before us, with the Betfred Hungerford Stakes providing the British highlight. It is a perfectly fine race but it is what it is. The Lennox Stakes, an identically fine race, albeit twice as lucrative, should stay as it is as well.
The Lennox, Hungerford, next month's Park Stakes at Doncaster and the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket in October, provide a narrative for seven-furlong specialists. All are pegged at Group 2 level, with York's Group 3 Sky Bet City of York Stakes, run on Friday week, chasing up that quartet given its whopping £180,000 purse.
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