Hungerford Stakes and Geoffrey Freer at Newbury

A good card at Newbury this afternoon is headed by the Group Two Hungerford Stakes over 7 furlongs at 16.05 CET. This is a specialist distance and in our view Ouqba (Barry and Richard Hills) should be ideally suited by the trip. The same owner has Finjaan (Marcus Tregoning/ Tagdh O´Shea) entered and he would come into the reckoning on 2009 form. However he was well beaten on his only start this season and the stable remains out of form. More danger could come from Godolphin´s Shakespearan (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), who has won 4 of his 8 career starts and is capable of further improvement. On the other hand Himalya (Jeremy Noseda/ Johnny Murtagh), although admirably consistent, has only ever won once, and looks more of a "place only" bet.

The Geoffrey Freer Stakes (Group Three) over 1 mile 5 furlongs is the main supporting feature, and on form the two penalised runners Kite Wood (bin Suroor) Dettori) and Sans Frontieres (Noseda/ Murtagh) could dominate this field. Kite Wood won this last year and found the trip too far last time when well beaten in the Gold Cup; he acts well on soft ground and is therefore prefrered to Sans Frontieres, a good Group Two winner at Newmarket last time, but trying this trip for the first time.

Another good race here is the listed event for 2yo´s at 15.00, in which 4 of the 5 runners are unbeaten, and all 5 last-time-out winners. Zaidan (Clive Brittain/ Seb Sanders) won in good style at Royal Ascot but must give away 3lbs as a result; however he could still be smart enough, with Native Khan (Ed Dunlop/ Kieren Fallon) possibly the main danger.