WHAT a week it was for Ireland’s raiders at the 2024 Sky Bet Ebor Festival at York.

From an Aidan O’Brien four-timer that included two of the meeting’s Group 1 prizes, to Magical Zoe’s Ebor heroics, Vauban’s Lonsdale Cup triumph and a popular staying handicap success for Extensio, the four days made for extremely enjoyable viewing from the perspective of the visitors.

A theme to the seven Irish winners at the Ebor meeting was the distance over which those victories came. With the exception of highly exciting two-year-old The Lion In Winter over seven furlongs in the Acomb Stakes and Juddmonte International star City Of Troy over an extended 10 furlongs, each of the other Irish-trained winners struck over a mile and a half or further.

As for the winners of the three non-Group 1s over those distances (Magical Zoe, Vauban and Extensio), each had also previously won over hurdles. Not for the first time, over the longer distances it seems there were plentiful rewards for Irish challengers in Britain.

The victory of Magical Zoe in the £500,000 SkyBet Ebor Handicap was particularly interesting to note considering her previous background as a smart hurdler for Henry de Bromhead. The six-year-old mare by Shantou hails from a family of National Hunt campaigners but has really blossomed this summer when switched to the level. She is now among the main contenders for the Melbourne Cup in ante-post markets, with a win-and-you’re-in stipulation for Flemington attached to the Ebor.

High rank

The handicapper decided to raise the de Bromhead mare to a new mark of 109 after her comfortable win as the well-backed 11/2 favourite, and that certainly sees her soar into high-class territory on the flat. After all, she plundered one of Europe’s most competitive handicaps of the season off a mark of 102 by two and three-quarters of a length. It was a smashing effort.

As an illustration of the company she is now in, here are the current rankings of top-rated older fillies and mares on the flat in Ireland (as per Horse Racing Ireland’s RÁS site): 1 - Content (115) and Opera Singer (115). 3 - Jackie Oh (114). 4 - Vespertilio (110) and Ylang Ylang (110). 6 - Magical Zoe (109). The Ebor scorer is now right amongst the top half dozen senior flat fillies and mares in the country, albeit Porta Fortuna would also have a place in that table and is absent from the online listing for some reason.

The Patrick and Scott Bryceland-owned stayer has been a talented campaigner over hurdles in her own right, but she could not have really been considered as threatening such high grades over flights. She ended the 2022/’23 season with a rating of 136, meaning she was not marked high enough to make that year’s Anglo-Irish Jumps Classification, and while she climbed to a mark of 143 by the end of the 2023/’24 campaign, that still leaves her with something to find in the top company, or even just below it (e.g. State Man is rated 169).

The Grade 3 mares’ novice hurdle winner ran with plenty of credit at the Dublin Racing Festival and Cheltenham Festival but was still beaten in handicap company nonetheless.

Nicky Henderson has jokingly teased before about Constitution Hill someday tackling the Gold Cup at Ascot, but the rise of a mare like Magical Zoe on the flat - and other jumpers who have successfully transitioned to the level - does raise the question as to how effective the most elite National Hunt campaigners would fare on the flat. It would be fascinating to see.

Jumping influence

For what it’s worth, Ebor runner-up Kihavah is also known as a 131-rated hurdler, while luckless fifth Hipop De Loire was second on his recent hurdling bow at Galway for Willie Mullins.

There was another case of a quality two-mile hurdler making the switch with great success last week at York in the shape of Vauban.

The 2022 Triumph Hurdle winner was already a listed winner in France before joining Mullins, but he has been able to take his form to a new level after being campaigned over hurdles.

A seven-and-a-half-length Royal Ascot winner off a mark of 101 last year who is now a Group 2 winner of the Lonsdale Cup, he ranks a step below the best two-mile hurdlers around. Just like last year, he again tops some ante-post markets for the Melbourne Cup. Max Dynamite, Mullins’ only other winner of the Lonsdale Cup, also had smart form over hurdles on his way to placing in two Melbourne Cups.

The 2023 Ebor winner from the same stable, Absurde, won this year’s County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, while Heartbreak City, a ready winner of the 2016 Ebor for Tony Martin before finishing second in the Melbourne Cup, was a pretty effective hurdler too.

You only have to go back to last October to find another example of Newmarket’s Cesarewitch being dominated by smart National Hunt performers. The Shunter, a winner over fences at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, rolled back the years at the age of 10 to beat dual Grade 2-winning hurdler Pied Piper in the £200,000 feature.

In fact, the fourth (Bashful Boy), fifth (Sheishybrid), sixth (Not So Sleepy) and seventh (Jesse Evans) have all served their time over flights too - the latter-named pair campaigned at a high level.

Group 1 level

Run For Oscar, who has a peak Timeform rating of 143 over jumps, won the previous year’s Cesarewitch before finishing third in the Group 1 Prix du Cadran in 2023. The 155-rated hurdler Buzz struck in the 2021 Cesarewitch, while similar can be said about the previous three winners of the race, Great White Shark (peak Timeform rating of 138 over hurdles), Stratum (Timeform 143) and Low Sun (Timeform 140), albeit they did begin their careers on the flat.

There is no shortage of examples of National Hunt horses able to make an impact at a considerably high level over staying trips on the flat. Galway Hurdle heroine Missunited memorably finished second in the 2014 Gold Cup at Ascot, also winning in Group 3 company at Goodwood, and the roll of honours for the Ascot Stakes and Queen Alexandra Stakes at the Royal Meeting feature an abundance of jumpers, including the multiple Grade 1-placed Jennies Jewel, who started out in bumpers, and Clondaw Warrior, one who began his career in point-to-points.

Who could forget Wicklow Brave either, as a winner at the highest level on the flat (2016 Irish St Leger) and over hurdles (2017 Punchestown Champion Hurdle)? After he started his racing career with a 29-length defeat in a Punchestown four-year-old bumper, not even the shiniest of crystal balls could have predicted the remarkably versatile CV he was about to build. He also finished second in the 2015 Ebor under a certain 7lb claimer called Jack Kennedy (wonder how he turned out?), which takes us neatly back to the takeaways from this year’s York meeting.

If horses like Magical Zoe and Vauban can take out the biggest staying prizes at one of the summer’s marquee festivals - and now be considered major players for the Melbourne Cup - how well would the likes of State Man, Constitution Hill, Lossiemouth, Ballyburn, Bob Olinger, Impaire Et Passe or Irish Point fare against the best flat stayers around?

It’s obviously highly unlikely we’ll ever get to see State Man, Ballyburn or Constitution Hill taking on Kyprios in an Irish St Leger, but if horses some way below their extremely high National Hunt grade can shake up some of the big pots in the flat staying discipline, it does make you think just how effective they might be.

If their connections were ever daring enough to try it, there seem to be definite opportunities on the table.