Dante Festival Betting Sites & Event Review: Jockeys, History and more

Our following review page will serve as your complete guide to horse racing betting on the Dante Festival. To begin with, the table shown above will be focusing on what to look out for at our top-recommended betting sites as far as special promotions, streams, form guides and odds prices are concerned. In the remaining sections, we’ll be sharing some more general info before looking at the history of the festival. For the most complete guide to the Dante Festival on the web, keep scrolling down to the rest of the article and get the full report.

Dante Festival Betting Offers and Promotions

Dante Festival betting offers are sometimes a little harder to find when compared to other flat events such as the Epsom Derby or the Guineas Festival. This isn’t to say that you won’t be able to find some. As shown in the table at the top of the page, both William Hill and Paddy Power have been known to offer special deals from time to time – these will most often be odds price boosts or maybe the occasional bet refund deal. For the most part, though, it will primarily be the industry-standard best odds guaranteed deal that you’ll see applied to this festival. As we always say, though, check your the T&C’s page of your favoured operators as you may be able to redeem some of the free bets you’ve been saving up on selections running in the different races across the festival.

Dante Festival Betting Odds Levels

In all honesty, you won’t find much variance in the Dante Festival betting odds levels on offer at the betting sites we’ve featured here in our review series. We’ve reviewed the market and the payout prices tend to range between 85%-87%, so no matter which operator you opt for you can pretty much guarantee you’ll be getting fair value for money. With regard to winner’s prices and trends, here’s something worth considering: in the Musidora Stakes, a race normally held on the first day of the festival, British trainer Josh Gosden has proven prolific, having taken five horses to first place in the last ten years.

Some Interesting Facts

The Dante Stakes is the first major event of the flat season to be held at the historic York Racecourse. Held in mid May of each year around the same time as the Chester May Festival, some of the most important races staged here are the Duke of York Stakes, a Group 2 race of six furlongs for three-year-olds and above; the Musidora Stakes, a Group 3 race of one-mile-and-two-furlongs for three-year-old fillies; the Dante Stakes, a Group 2 race also of one-mile-and-two-furlongs but only for three year olds; and the Yorkshire Cup, a Group 2 race of one-mile-and-six-furlongs for four-year-olds and above.

Event Information:
First held:	1927	Dante Festival logo Dante Festival racecourse view
Top Prize:	£225,000
Duration of Event:	Three days
Track:	York
Weight:	Varied
Qualification:	Varied

In a similar vein to some of the other flat racing events that take place in the early stages of the season, some of the races in the Dante Festival are often viewed as a curtain raiser for the more prestigious races that take place later in the year. This has indeed proven to be the case over the years with many horses that achieve success here going on to win the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby or Royal Ascot. Among these are Sariska, Kayf Tara, Golden Horn and Cape Blanco.

The Story So Far

The oldest of all the races held at the Dante Festival is the Yorkshire Cup, which was inaugurated in 1927, making it in the median age of all events reviewed by us. It is traditionally held on the third and final day of the festival – the day after the Dante Stakes. Over the years the total prize money up for grabs across the three days has risen gradually. In 2017 the amount was increased to £1.2million, an increase of £45,000 on the previous year, which saw each of the Group 2 races increase by £5000 and subsequently valued at £20,000 or more. Dante Festival betting is also on this rise; more people have been wagering at the track and online in the last couple of years than ever before.

Today, the Dante Stakes is a fantastic season-opener where horse racing enthusiasts and one-time-punters from all walks of life come together in what is a great advertisement for the sport of kings. The Yorkshire Racecourse staff ensure that the lawn is cut to perfection, the fresh spring flowers are in full bloom and the entertainment on display is of the highest order. Hospitality packages, fine dining facilities and lavish style provide a glistening backdrop to three days of riveting equestrian action with at least one feature race on display on every day of the festival.

Don’t miss out on your chance to wager on one of the most-prized flat events of the year – Be sure to opt for one of the best Dante Festival betting sites featured in this review!