Saffie Osborne is set to continue her association with Scampi when he bids for Sky Bet Ebor glory at York on Saturday week.

The 21-year-old was in the saddle aboard Andrew Balding’s charge when he registered his second victory of the season on the Shergar Cup card at Ascot last Saturday, and connections are delighted to have retained her services when Scampi heads to the Knavesmire for the prestigious handicap.

Owned by the RaceShare syndicate, the five-year-old is as short as 14-1 for the £500,000 contest, having secured his spot in the race by winning the Jorvik Handicap at the track earlier in the season, and plenty of his supporters will be making the trip to cheer him on in his quest for further glory.

“We’re all on an absolute high at the moment,” said Lucy Delaney, managing director of RaceShare.

“We have confirmed that Saffie Osborne keeps the ride in the Ebor, which we are really thrilled about because she gave him an absolute cracking ride at Ascot on Saturday.

“York have been fantastic in supporting us and we hope to have a really big group of owners there cheering him on and he’s obviously reached new heights really.

“Scampi’s name and his style of running just really connects with people and he has a bit of a following now. I think not just his RaceShare owners, but the wider racing public have latched onto him because he has become a really consistent Saturday horse.

“We’re just hoping everything goes well in the Ebor and he is able to put up one of his always consistent runs.”

A bold showing in the Ebor could help fulfil ambitious plans from the owners to race in Australia later in the season, with Scampi holding nominations for both the Caulfield Cup on October 21 and the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

The Ebor also serves as an automatic qualifier for the ‘race that stops the nation’ on November 7, so there is plenty on the line when the Kingsclere inmate heads north on August 26.

“He went up 6lb for his win and obviously it is still a dream, but if he did run well in the Ebor and goes up a bit more, Australia is a possibility,” continued Delaney.

“Andrew entered him in the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup with the feeling being he was going so well at home and if he did come out and win the Ebor and he wasn’t entered in those races, we might regret it.

“He confirmed how he is flying at the moment with his win at Ascot on Saturday and we’re trying not to get too excited, but his community of owners are all counting down the days to the Ebor.

“We are massively keen on Australia. He would need a further jump in the ratings, so he would need to do well in the Ebor or even a race soon after to get into the Australian races. But if he does continue on his upward curve, we would be really keen to take on the Australians.”

Although Scampi’s legion of syndicate members may still be holding fire on booking their tickets to Australia, he has easily become the standard-bearer for the fledgling RaceShare operation since being purchased for 85,000 guineas last October.

He has secured over £100,000 in prize-money for his owners and his importance is not lost on Delaney, who via RaceShare attempts to enhance the ownership experience through interactive means, such as live shows on racedays, broadcasting not only the Raceshare horses in action but also showing behind the scenes footage from the track with key participants.

She said: “We only launched in November last year with the five horses and we’ve grown from there and in fairness they have all done all right.

“There is still probably a lot to come from Treasure Time and Red Mirage will find his form, and I think Jolly Nellerie is going to be a typical Venetia Williams long-term project.

“But Scampi really couldn’t have done much more for us than he has, he’s an absolute hero. There’s over 1,000 people involved with Scampi and all our horses are divided into 4,000 shares.

“You can buy from one to 250 shares and the aim is, while we want to make the raceday experience on course brilliant, we want to do a really good job of creating a really good experience off course as well, because the majority of owners are never going to actually get to the course most of the time.

“We’ve built up a lovely community of owners in a really short space of time and the form of Scampi is just the icing on the cake.”

Jim Goldie is doubtful Euchen Glen will get another crack at the Sky Bet Ebor, despite finishing an honourable third when in action at the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

The 10-year-old has won 12 times in a long and distinguished 61-race career, but is without a victory since winning the Listed Gala Stakes in 2021 and as such has seen his rating drop from a career high of 116 to 96.

Looking to snap that two-year loosing run in the Coral Summer Handicap on the Sussex Downs, Euchen Glen gave a fine account to make the podium in heavy ground.

However, his handler believes he needed to win to stand a chance of making the final field of the Ebor for the fourth successive year with him currently lying 37th on the list for the £500,000 contest which has a maximum field of 22.

“He’s going fine, but we’re probably going to miss the Ebor,” said Goldie.

“I think he had to win at Goodwood to get in the Ebor. We will probably have to look at another race at York.

“He needs quite a few to come out and if they do we will be running in it, but we might miss it by one or two.

“If we got the ground you got at Goodwood, you never know, and he is one of the few horses who does handle it. That would make it interesting, but I think we will get a summer at some point!”

The current favourite for the Knavesmire handicap is Euchen Glen’s Goodwood conqueror Sweet William, who was also ahead of Goldie’s stable stalwart when they clashed over two miles at Newbury last month.

But the Scottish handler is keen to take another crack at John and Thady Gosden’s improving stayer, having bridged the deficit between the pair in their most recent encounter.

“I think it was two very progressive horses that beat him at Goodwood and it was a good field,” added Goldie.

“I know they think a lot of the winner, but it is interesting because we are getting closer to him. We ran against him at Newbury and we probably closed that gap by four or five lengths at Goodwood.

“With another 7 or 8lb we might actually pass him one day, with the theory that weight will stop a train eventually.

“Euchen Glen is obviously a superstar and he’s from a good family, Sir Chauvelin is his brother, so we’ve had a lot of winners out of that mare.”

York’s chief executive and clerk of the course William Derby hailed news that the Sky Bet Ebor winner will be handed a “golden ticket” into the Melbourne Cup field as “fantastic”.

The arrangement was announced on Thursday with the Ebor, won by the Frankie Dettori-ridden Trawlerman last year, becoming the seventh win-and-you’re-in race for the £4.4m event in November.

The Ebor, worth £500,000 itself, is the first international race to provide automatic entry into the Australian showpiece event, which has drawn the interest of plenty of European-based trainers over the years.

Dermot Weld was the first to taste success in 1993 with the legendary Vintage Crop and he repeated the feat with Media Puzzle in 2002.

Alain de Royer-Dupre and Mikel Delzangles then provided France with back-to-back wins with Americain (2010) and Dunaden (2011), while Andreas Wohler struck gold for Germany in 2014 when Protectionist was ridden to victory by Ryan Moore.

More recently Joseph O’Brien twice (Rekindling 2017 and Twilight Payment 2020) and Charlie Appleby’s Cross Counter (2018) have improved the overseas raiders’ record.

The Cup itself will be in York during the Ebor meeting with the feature race taking place on August 28.

“It is fantastic to officially connect two iconic races in the Sky Bet Ebor and the Lexus Melbourne Cup with the introduction of a golden ticket for the Ebor winner into the race that stops a nation and indeed much of the world,” said Derby.

“With the York winner having finished in the top 10 at Flemington in three of the four years preceding the pandemic, this great news will give confidence to winning connections that that their start at Flemington is secure, further linking two great races.

“We look forward to welcoming the 2023 Lexus Melbourne Cup on all four days of the Sky Bet Ebor Festival (23-26 August) on its annual tour across the world. This makes us more hopeful that it can return to Britain after the first Tuesday in November.”

Victoria Racing Club chief executive Steve Rosich said the alignment with York was a natural progression.

“The Ebor handicap has been a proven pathway into the Melbourne Cup over the years and it is fantastic to be able to build on the association with Flemington and York racecourse,” he said.

“The introduction of a seventh golden ticket is exciting for both clubs and the connections of all potential Ebor runners. It further cements the Lexus Melbourne Cup’s international reach and appeal.”