York Dante Festival day one

Brando the don on Wednesday

Day one of the Dante Festival at York gets underway on Wednesday, with the first of an exciting seven-race card at 2.20pm. You can back all the opening day winners, and have your say throughout the week, here at Coral, the home of horse racing value.

Betting on the go – we provide a selection in every race at the foot of this page, designed to aid your midweek multiples. Pick your best of them, and keep an eye on the results throughout the card. Focussing on the cream of the afternoon, we look at our NAP and next best below.

Progressive fav to strike again

The Duke Of York Stakes serves as the main attraction of the day, a competitive group two affair run over six furlongs. Of the 13 expected to post, Brando looks the winner for us. Kevin Ryan’s five-year-old did nothing but impress last season, including an eye-catching win in the Ayr Gold Cup back in September, off a sizeable SP.

The selection carried that on to 2017, getting off to a flying start last month when doing the business at Newmarket in the Abernant Stakes, a group three over today’s trip. Going off as an even money jolly on that occasion, he lived up to the pre-race hype, despite encountering a bit of early traffic. Went past runner-up Ornate at the end, and was seen running away from them when it mattered.

Brando appears to have been given a real opportunity to continue his winning ways, and if following on from the effort we saw from him last time, then he’ll surely take all the beating. Coral traders are handing out 11/4 at the time of writing, and that’s sure to hold plenty of weight with punters.