Newmarket July Festival: day one

Newmarket´s July Festival, one of the best meetings of the summer, starts today with a high class card, beginning with 3 Group races. The Group Three Bahrain Trophy for 3yo´s over 1 mile 5 furlongs, which opens the card at 14.40 CET, is an important St. Leger trial and we shall probably see several of these runners at Doncaster in 2 months time. Some of them ran at Royal Ascot, with Feel Like Dancing (John Gosden/ William Buick) doing best when runner-up in the Queen´s Vase; this shorter trip should be no problem. Dare to Achieve (William Haggas/ Richard Hughes) is moving up sharply in grade after a very easy maiden win, but is highly regarded and the most likely danger.

The Group Two July Stakes for 2yo´s over 6 furlongs at 15.10 is the main event of the day, and with 10 of the 11 runners having already won - and the other placed twice on both starts- it looks open and most of them are very lightly raced and open to great improvement. The best form is the third place in the Coventry Stakes of Sir John Hawkins (Aidan O´Brien/ Ryan Moore), and with trainer and jockey in top form, he will almost certainly start favourite. However the two unbeaten colts Canyari (Richard Fahey/ Jimmy Fortune) and Figure of Speech (Saeed bin Suroor/ Mickael Barzalona) both created a very positive Impression when winning their maidens and cannot be ruled out .

Half an hour later the Princess of Wales´s Stakes over 1 1/2 miles is also a Group two and looks wide open, with all the 7 runners rated almost equal. Universal (Mark Johnston/ Joe Fanning), third in the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot after winning three times, is an obvious possibility, while Grandeur (Jeremy Noseda/ Buick) and the German-bred mare Wild Coco (Lady Cecil/ Tom Queally) both make their seasonal debut after ending 2012 with a good win. However the one we like best is Godolphin´s Cavalryman (Saeed bin Suroor/ Silvestre de Sousa), who has been running over longer distances but is equally effective over this trip and will love the fast going.

The 10 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s at 15.15 is the big betting race of the day, and our choice here is Soviet Rock (Andrew Balding/ Thomas Brown) from a stable that usually does well at this meeting, while the 5 furlongs handicap at 18.00 can go to Fratellino (Alan McCabe/ Barzalona), who has not run siunce a busy winter campaign on the all-weather but is well handicapped on turf. Best thing of the day is Montiridge (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes), who needs only reproduce the form of his Jersey Stakes second to take the listed mile race at 17.25, and the same team also have a good chance in the preceding 2yo fillies maiden with Oriel. Expensive yearling purchase Amnesia (Haggas/ Graham Lee) makes her debut here .... but we´ve forgotten what we wanted to say....

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Dare To Achieve - Feel Like Dancing - Havana Beat
2. Race: Sir John Hawkins - Canyari - Figure Of Speech
3. Race: Universal - Cavalryman - Danadana
4. Race: Matrooh - Tarikhi - Space Ship
5. Race: Oriel - Grevillea - Qawaasem
6. Race: Ashdan - Alhebayeb - Race And Status
7. Race: Avon Breeze - Doctor Parkes - Fratellino