Melrose Heritage Handicap Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Ebor Festival)

We look at the Melrose Heritage Handicap ahead of the next renewal, a race contested over 1m6f at York during the Ebor Festival to see which runners, trainers and jockeys have previously won the race and which trends you can use to find the winner of the Melrose Heritage Handicap.
Melrose Heritage Handicap Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Ebor Festival)
Andy Powell
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2025 Melrose Heritage Handicap Preview

The Melrose Stakes is a heritage handicap that features on the final day of the York Ebor Festival which is run in August of each year, the race features on the same day as the Ebor Handicap.

This Class 2 race is open to three-year-old runners only and is run over one mile, five furlongs and one hundred and eighty-eight yards.

Melrose Heritage Handicap Information:

To see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are tipping throughout the card that includes this race, head over to the York tips on the day of the race, do they agree with the runners on the trend shortlist or are they predicting other runners? You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at York Racecourse section for links to these.

How competitive is the Melrose Heritage Handicap market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 19 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2006 when the race had an over-round of 114%. The race in 2017 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 133%, whilst on average over the last 19 renewals of the Melrose Heritage Handicap, the over-round has been 125%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £125 which is bet.

Melrose Heritage Handicap Trends:

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 19 if you had followed the winner of the Melrose Heritage Handicap next time out then you would have backed a total of 5 winners. Backing all 18 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -2.62. Remember to use the racing predictions along with the information on this page to find a bet on the 2025 Melrose Heritage Handicap.

Over the last 19 renewals, it was Tawqeet, trained by John Dunlop and ridden by Richard Hills who set the fastest winning time in the Melrose Heritage Handicap, the runner won the race in a time of 2:53.82 when winning the race in 2005. At the other end of the scale, it was the combination of trainer James Given and jockey Jamie Mackay with Trick Or Treat who set the slowest winning time, the race-winning time was 3:03.88 in the 2006 renewal.

These are the top three quickest-run Melrose Heritage Handicap over the last 19 renewals:

  1. Tawqeet (2:53.82) in 2005
  2. Ghostwatch (2:53.87) in 2018
  3. Soulcombe (2:55.85) in 2022

Melrose Heritage Handicap Past Winners

Here are the Melrose Heritage Handicap past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. Also detailed is the stall where the horse came from and the total number of runners in the race. The horse's trainer and the jockey at the time of winning the Melrose Heritage Handicap are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

YearHorse (Drawn)Info
2024
2:57.85
Tabletalk (IRE)
3yo 9-3 (4 of 16) 12/1
Rossa Ryan
Tom Clover (GB)
2023
2:56.63
Middle Earth (GB)
3yo 9-3 (9 of 13) 9/2F
Oisin Murphy
John & Thady Gosden (GB)
2022
2:55.85
Soulcombe (GB)
3yo 8-4 (11 of 13) 3/1F
Hollie Doyle
William Haggas (GB)
2021
2:56.50
Valley Forge (GB)
3yo 8-8 (16 of 22) 10/1
David Probert
Andrew Balding (GB)
2020
3:02.77
Coltrane (IRE)
3yo 8-8 (8 of 14) 12/1
Oisin Murphy
Andrew Balding (GB)
2019
2:56.08
Hamish (GB)
3yo 9-3 (6 of 12) 7/1
James Doyle
William Haggas (GB)
2018
2:53.87
Ghostwatch (IRE)
3yo 8-13 (1 of 16) 10/1
William Buick
Charlie Appleby (GB)
2017
2:57.27
Secret Advisor (FR)
3yo 9-2 (13 of 19) 5/1F
James Doyle
Charlie Appleby (GB)
2016
2:56.94
Wall Of Fire (IRE)
3yo 9-6 (4 of 13) 16/1
William Buick
Hugo Palmer (GB)
2015
3:01.84
Polarisation (GB)
3yo 8-7 (19 of 18) 28/1
Liam Jones
Mark Johnston (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Melrose Heritage Handicap have been based:

  • GB: 18 winners with an additional 41 placings from 265 runners
  • IRE: 1 winner with an additional 6 placings from 17 runners
  • HK: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner
  • FR: 0 winners with an additional 0 placings from 1 runner

Melrose Heritage Handicap Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Melrose Heritage Handicap over the last 19 renewals is William Haggas who has won the race three times with those three winners coming from Guarantee (2012), Hamish (2019) and Soulcombe (2022). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Melrose Heritage Handicap are Andrew Balding (2 wins) and Charlie Appleby (2 wins). Multiple trainers have not had the best of times over the last 19 renewals in the Melrose Heritage Handicap, Michael Bell (0-13), Sir Michael Stoute (0-13) and Ralph Beckett (0-10) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top Melrose Heritage Handicap trainer statistics over the last 19 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

TrainerR-W-PWinEW
William Haggas13-3-4+9.00+2.95
Andrew Balding19-2-6+5.00+5.00
Charlie Appleby5-2-2+12.00+6.38
Hughie Morrison8-1-2+9.00+4.13
Hugo Palmer4-1-2+13.00+8.63
John & Thady Gosden4-1-1+1.50-0.19
Tom Clover1-1-1+12.00+7.50
A J Martin1-1-1+8.00+4.80
Michael Bell13-0-3-13.00-3.37
Sir Michael Stoute13-0-4-13.00-8.22

Melrose Heritage Handicap Jockey Statistics

There are multiple leading jockeys in the Melrose Heritage Handicap over the last 19 renewals with William Buick, Oisin Murphy and James Doyle having all won the race two times. William Buick winners have been with Wall Of Fire (2016) and Ghostwatch (2018). Oisin Murphy winners have been with Coltrane (2020) and Middle Earth (2023). James Doyle's winners have been with Secret Advisor (2017) and Hamish (2019). There is one jockey who has not had the best of times in the Melrose Heritage Handicap, Silvestre De Sousa has ridden 10 runners to the race without recording any wins.

Here are some of the top Melrose Heritage Handicap jockey statistics over the last 19 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

JockeyR-W-PWinEW
William Buick8-2-5+20.00+17.63
Oisin Murphy5-2-3+13.50+8.56
James Doyle5-2-2+9.00+4.51
David Probert8-1-3+3.00+3.25
Jamie Spencer7-1-5-2.00+3.38
Frankie Dettori6-1-2+4.00+1.50
Hollie Doyle4-1-1+0.00-1.12
Richard Kingscote3-1-2+14.00+11.00
Liam Jones2-1-1+27.00+16.50
Franny Norton2-1-2+7.00+5.50

Melrose Heritage Handicap Trend Analysis

The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 2 career starts in the class, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-48.

Here are the most recent winning draws along with the further placings in brackets:

  • 2024: Winner in 4 (12,2,13) [16 Runners]
  • 2023: Winner in 9 (7,4) [13 Runners]
  • 2022: Winner in 11 (13,8) [13 Runners]
  • 2021: Winner in 16 (17,14,10) [22 Runners]
  • 2020: Winner in 8 (15,1) [14 Runners]

The course which has produced the most winners of the Melrose Heritage Handicap is Goodwood, there has been a total number of 6 winners of this race who ran at Goodwood last time out. The next best courses which have produced the second most winners are Ascot and Newmarket (July), there has been a total number of 3 winners from each of those courses.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 17 winners from a total of 263 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 2 winners from a total of 21 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Melrose Heritage Handicap:

  • Dubawi (2 Wins)
  • Montjeu (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Melrose Heritage Handicap despite multiple attempts:

  • Galileo (0 Wins from 18 runners)
  • Sea The Stars (0 Wins from 10 runners)
  • Golden Horn (0 Wins from 8 runners)
  • Hernando (0 Wins from 7 runners)
  • Australia (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 19 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Polarisation in 2015, winning for Mark Johnston at odds of 28/1 under the guidance of Liam Jones. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 19 renewals there have been 5 winning favourites in the race. Whilst we wait for the 2025 Melrose Heritage Handicap remember you can get daily racing predictions from the top racing tipsters on the best racing tipsters page.

Other Principal races during the York Ebor Festival

Remember to head over to the York predictions page to see which runner the racing tipsters support in the Melrose Heritage Handicap. Below are the other principal races that we cover during the Ebor Festival with links to each race blog and information for last year's winners.

Wednesday at the Ebor Festival

The highlight on the opening day of the Ebor Festival is the Juddmonte International, a Group 1 race with a purse of £1.25m which is part of the British Champion Series.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:50 York
Symphony Group Handicap
Jm Jungle (IRE)
4yo - 10/1
John & Sean Quinn
Jason Hart
14:25 York
Acomb Stakes
The Lion In Winter (IRE)
2yo - 2/1
A P O'Brien
Ryan Moore
15:00 York
Great Voltigeur Stakes
Los Angeles (IRE)
3yo - 5/4
A P O'Brien
Ryan Moore
15:35 York
Juddmonte International Stakes
City Of Troy (USA)
3yo - 5/4
A P O'Brien
Ryan Moore
16:10 York
York Ebor Festival Stayers Handicap
Extensio (IRE)
7yo - 14/1
P F O'Donnell
J M Sheridan

Thursday at the Ebor Festival

The fillies and mares take centre stage on Thursday at the festival in the Yorkshire Oaks, another Group 1 which is part of the British Champion Series.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:50 York
Lowther Stakes
Celandine (GB)
2yo - 13/2
Ed Walker
Tom Marquand
14:25 York
Premier Yearling Stakes
Diligently (GB)
2yo - 22/1
Clive Cox
Rossa Ryan
15:00 York
Clipper Handicap
Thunder Run (IRE)
3yo - 6/1
K R Burke
David Egan
15:35 York
Yorkshire Oaks
Content (IRE)
3yo - 3/1
A P O'Brien
Ryan Moore
16:10 York
Galtres Stakes
Scenic (FR)
4yo - 8/1
Ed Walker
Oisin Murphy

Friday at the Ebor Festival

The British Champion Series race for Friday at the Ebor Festival is the 500k Nunthrope over the sprint distance of five furlongs. The Lonsdale Cup is also part of the British Champion Series on Friday.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:50 York
York Ebor Festival Sky Bet Handicap
Shadow Dance (GB)
4yo - 6/1
Roger Varian
James Doyle
14:25 York
Lonsdale Cup
Vauban (FR)
6yo - 11/2
W P Mullins
William Buick
15:00 York
Gimcrack Stakes
Cool Hoof Luke (GB)
2yo - 8/1
Andrew Balding
Oisin Murphy
15:35 York
Nunthorpe Stakes
Bradsell (GB)
4yo - 3/1
Archie Watson
Hollie Doyle

Saturday at the Ebor Festival

The highlight on the final day of the Ebor Festival is the Ebor Handicap itself, a stamina testing class two handicap which carries a purse of 500k.

RaceLast WinnerInfo
13:50 York
Strensall Stakes
See The Fire (GB)
3yo - 3/1
Andrew Balding
Oisin Murphy
14:25 York
Melrose Heritage Handicap
Tabletalk (IRE)
3yo - 12/1
Tom Clover
Rossa Ryan
15:00 York
City of York Stakes
Breege (GB)
4yo - 33/1
John & Sean Quinn
Colin Keane
15:35 York
Ebor Handicap
Magical Zoe (IRE)
6yo - 11/2
Henry De Bromhead
W J Lee
16:45 York
Roses Stakes
Tropical Storm (GB)
2yo - 5/2
Andrew Balding
Oisin Murphy

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Melrose Heritage Handicap Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for Flat Racing.

Darren Brett

Darren Brett

Tipster Competition Manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.
Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content Editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing expert with over 15 years of experience, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the sport, from delving into complex statistical data for flat racing in the UK and Ireland to crafting insightful flat racing blogs for OLBG.

Other Principal Races at York Racecourse

Here are some other notable races at the York racecourse throughout the racing season that you may be interested in.

Races in May (Dante Festival)

Races in July

Races in October

No Comments

There are no comments here. Be the first to comment...

Please login or register to reply to this news article
KEEP READING
Showcase Trophy Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Showcase Meeting)

Showcase Trophy Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Showcase Meeting)

Explore the Showcase Trophy at Cheltenham's Showcase Meeting. Discover past winners, leading trainers and jockeys, and key trends that could shape this year's race. Gain valuable insights for your handicap chase predictions.
Continue Reading
Cheltenham Showcase Meeting Handicap Chase Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Showcase Meeting)

Cheltenham Showcase Meeting Handicap Chase Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Showcase Meeting)

Discover key trends, top trainers, and successful jockeys in the Cheltenham Showcase Meeting Handicap Chase. This 2-mile race at Cheltenham's Showcase Meeting offers valuable insights for predicting future winners based on past performances.
Continue Reading
Northfields Handicap Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Irish Champions Weekend)

Northfields Handicap Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends (Irish Champions Weekend)

We look at the Northfields Handicap ahead of the next renewal, a race contested over 1m2f at Curragh during Irish Champions Weekend to see which runners, trainers and jockeys have previously won the race and which trends can you use to find the winner of the Northfields Handicap.
Continue Reading