group races at Newbury

a typical Saturday with meetings all over the place - 8 in the U.K. and one in Ireland, where Tramore finally gets under way after there first two days of their big fixture had to br abandoned.
the top meeting is Newbury where there are two group races on the card. The Hungerford Stakes over 7 furlongs is a Group Two and always goes to a smart performer. Strong Suit (Richard Hannon/ Ryan Moore) is the form choice here; although well beaten on his 2012 starts, always in very hot company, he now encounters his favoured fast ground for the first time and is racing over his best distance. The main dangers are Godolphin´s Australian-bred Soul (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), a close 4th to Black Caviar at Royal Ascot last time, and Irish raider Alanza (John Oxx/ Niall McCullagh), another fast ground specialist.
The Group Three Geoffrey Freer Stakes over 1 mile 5 furlongs is often used as a St.Leger trial, but the only 3yo in the field is Dartford, who is presumably the pacemaker for his stable companion Masked Marvel (John Gosden/ Jimmy Fortune), who won last year´s St. Leger with Brown Panther (Tom Dascombe/ Richard Kingscote) a good runner-up. However the latter, a son of Shirocco, probably needs soft ground and Masked Marvel should confirm that form, although he was behind Brown Panther last time in the King George. Mount Athos (Luca Cumani/ Ryan Moore) is being aimed at the Melboune Cup and needs to well here to improve his rating; he is unbeaten in two starts this year, both in valuable handicaps, but this is much tougher. The ex-German Arrigo (Ibrahim al Malki/ Martin Dwyer) won last years Union-Rennen before finishing last, after being badly hampered, in the German Derby. He is coming off a long break and we are sceptical.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Supernova Heights - Abated - Tantshi
2. Race: Just The Judge - Pasaka Boy - Ninjago
3. Race: Mount Athos - Brown Panther - Masked Marvel
4. Race: Strong Suit - Soul - Pastoral Player
5. Race: Jacob Cats - Emilio Largo - Valery Borzov
6. Race: Jillnextdoor - Malilla - Floating Along
7. Race: Commend - Drummond - Docs Legacy
8. Race: The Quarterjack - Shades Of Grey - Tidal Run