2026 York Dante Meeting Thursday Tips – DS
2026 York Dante Meeting Thursday Preview
Dave Stevos is going early with his preview for Day 2 at York as he won’t be at his desk this afternoon. Hopefully, we get the worm… 2026 York Dante Meeting Thursday preview is below. In case you missed it yesterday, his Day 1 preview is here.
2.20 – Lindum York Handicap (class 2)
The most interesting one here at a decent price is Toca Madera. Formerly trained by Brian Meehan, this son of Bated Breath is a very good sprinter on his day and he is the type of horse that David O’Meara often excels with.
This horse has only won two races, a poor return for a horse with his ability. His last victory came off 94 at Windsor (6f, gd-fm) in August 2024 and while he failed to add to his tally in 2025, he did run some cracking races in defeat.
Last April, for example, he was only beaten 1l at Newmarket (5f, good) off a mark of 96. However, the run that makes him of massive interest here was his run in this race last year. He was only beaten 1.75l into third behind American Affair (now rated 15lb higher) and Jm Jungle (now rated 17lb higher) and Toca Madera is now rated 8lb lower.
He did run moderately on his seasonal return and stable debut in a Mickey Mouse handicap at Thirsk but surely that was just a prep run for a shot at this much larger pot. Now, I would have preferred if he were drawn lower (and he’d be NAP material if he was) but American Affair won from a high draw last year so fingers crossed. At odds of 22/1, back Toca Madera e/w.
2026 York Dante Meeting Thursday Tip: Toca Madera e/w @ 22/1 (5 places)
2.55 – Hambleton Handicap (Class 2)
It usually pays to be drawn low over 1m at York. And it usually pays to back Ed Bethell horses in this race as he has won the last two runnings. He is represented by Point Lynas here, who won this in 2024 off 9lb lower, and the 7yo has landed the plum draw in stall 1. That’s two boxes ticked.
He was also second from stall 16 in 2023 (we backed him) so clearly, the son of Iffraaj has an affinity for this track. Since that win here in 2024 he has added a Listed race at Pontefract and has run huge in Group 3 and Group 2 company.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, he’s 9lb higher than he was in 2024 but even off that inflated mark of 109, if he were to repeat the form of his Listed win, or even his Summer Mile second at Ascot when he split the 116 rated Never So Brave and the 113 rated Haatem, he should be able to get involved off that mark.
Point Lynas does lack a run, but he has gone well fresh in the past and he was returning from a 250-day absence when he landed this in 2024. At odds of 16/1, Point Lynas is the each way selection.
2026 York Dante Meeting Thursday Tip: Point Lynas e/w @ 16/1 (5 places)
4.05 – Dante Stakes (Group 2)
Just the five runners in the preceding Middleton Fillies’ Stakes so we’ll move straight onto the festival feature. Interestingly, Ryan Moore has plumped for the Camelot colt Christmas Day who is rated 4lb inferior to his Frankel stablemate Action, who’ll be ridden by Wayne Lordan.
However, this is not a race Aidan O’Brien has had a lot of success in over the years and he hasn’t won it since Cape Blanco won in 2010. William Haggas won it with the ill-fated Economics a couple of years ago and his Dubawi colt Morshidi is fighting it out for favouritism with Christmas Day. The form of his Newmarket win (9f, good) has taken quite a few knocks, but the dam side of his pedigree suggests he could improve further for this longer trip.
Unbeaten
The only unbeaten colt in the field is Andrew Balding’s Frankel colt Item. A winner of both his starts at two, admittedly at a far lower level than this, he is being pitched in at the deep end on his seasonal return but Balding won this with The Foxes back in 2023 so he does know what it takes to produce one for the Dante and while his bare form is nowhere near the level required, he is unexposed and there could be lots more to come.
Charlie Appleby runs two but the form of his string has to be a huge worry. He hasn’t had a winner for 18 days (25 runners) so it is very hard to be confident in the prospects of either King’s Trail or Al Zanati.
Gosden Runners
The field is completed by a pair of John Gosden runners. Wise Prince, a son of the up and coming sire Ghaiyyath is the shorter of the two at around 10/1 and Rab Havlin rides. He also runs Guildmaster, who runs in the blue of Godolphin, and I think he could go well at double figure odds.
A son of one of my favourite sires, Teofilo, he was bred by his sire’s trainer, Jim Bolger. He won on debut on the AW at Lingfield in December, despite looking very green. Put away after that 3l win, he made his reappearance in a Newmarket novice and was beaten just over 5l into third behind Maho Bay and Amadeus Mozart, a 25-1 poke for the Irish Derby.
It looked as though Guildmaster didn’t enjoy the dip at Newmarket and Rab Havlin wasn’t hard on him at all. This flatter, more conventional track might bring about a much-improved display and while the winner of his last race didn’t run well in the Derby Trial at Lingfield on his next start, it was unlikely that was his true form given how badly Appleby’s horses have been running.
This looks a relatively open renewal of the Dante with questions over quite a few of them so at odds of 16/1, it is worth taking an e/w chance on Guildmaster.
