RIPON’S richest race, the £70,000 William Hill Great St Wilfrid Stakes over 6f, takes pride of place on a top-class card this Saturday. It’s the most valuable raceday of the season, with total prize money of £144,000.

As usual, the Great St Wilfrid is expected to include several locally-trained runners – it has been won for the last five years by Yorkshire-trained horses. David Nicholls’ Orion’s Bow was 6/1fav earlier this week, with, from the same yard, Kimberella at 10/1, the same price as David O’Meara’s Intisaab. Don’t discount Mark Johnston’s 14/1 shot Hawatif.

The meeting also features The William Hill Silver Trophy, a £20,000 consolation race for the horses entered, but unable to get into the feature race. Racing at Ripon starts at 1.50pm with entry from 11.30am.

Then, it’s on to York’s seasonal highlight, the four-day Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival, which begins next Wednesday.

The feature race on day one is the £900,000 Group 1 Juddmonte International, part of the British Champions Series, for which Roger Varian’s Postponed is a worthy 2/1 fav, ahead of Roger Charlton’s Time Test, 9/2, with Aiden O’Brien holding multiple entries, among them US Army Ranger, 9/2, and The Gurka, 6/1. I’ll be rooting for Kevin Ryan’s The Great Gatsby, 10/1.

The same day’s Group 2 Great Voltigeur sees Sir Michael Stoute’s Across The Stars installed as 6/1 ante-post favourite, with John Gosden’s Wings Of Desire also of interest at 10/1 and more.