Newmarket July meeting: final day with July Cup

Today is the final day of Newmarket´s July Meeting, with the Group One July Cup over 6 furlongs at 16.50 CET the main feature. In our opinion it is crazy to run this race on a Saturday when there is so much high class racing elsewhere. However of more immediate interest is the going, which is still soft after the heavy rain on Thursday night and this will undoubtedly be a factor; there are no non-runners at the time of writing, but they could still come.

There is a strong international challenge here with 5 runners from Ireland, and one each from Spain and the USA. It would certainly be nice if the American Undrafted (Wesley Ward/ Frankie Dettori), owned by football star Wes Welker, could win this, but we don´t really believe it. The Spanish runner Noozhoh Canarias is more interesteing with Christophe Soumillon on board. He led for a long way in the 2,000 Guineas and this shorter race was immediately announced as his next target; last October he was runner-up in the Prix Lagardere on very soft ground, and that was also very strong form.

However we expect an Irish winner today. Eddie Lynam won both Group One Sprints at Royal Ascot, with Sole Power (Richard Hughes) and Slade Power (Wayne Lordan) and they both show up again. Over this distance and on this ground we have no hesitation in preferring Slade Power, who seems much improved since finishing third here last year. At Ascot he beat Due Diligence (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien), who is surely the best of his trainer´s 3 runners here, with Aljamaaheer (Roger Varian/ Paul Hanagan) a close third, with more of these further back. The ground was fast then, but he had earlier defeated the smart Maarek on very soft ground in Ireland, so the going is no problem. We cannot really fancy any of the British runners, but two that will like the ground and could go well at a big price are Gregorian (John Gosden/ William Buick) and Jack Dexter (Jim Goldie/ Graham Lee).

The main supporting feature is the Group Two Superlative Stakes for 2yo´s over 7 furlongs at 15.40. There are some very promising types entered here, including the well-bred Estidhkaar (Richard Hannon/ Hanagan) and the O´Briens´ Gleneagles, but they both won on firm ground last time and we shall take a chance on Smaih ((Hannon/ Dettori), who has a very interesting German pedigree.

The big betting race is the Bunbury Cup, a 7 furlongs handicap at 16.15. Quite a few of the runners were in action at Royal Ascot and in a very tricky race we choose Ayaar (Luca Cumani/ Dettori), who was a good 5th in the Hunt Cup and at two won the big juvenile event at Baden-Baden.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Token Of Love - Mutawathea - Idea
2. Race: Gleneagles - Lieutenant Kaffee - Estidhkaar
3. Race: Horsted Keynes - Abseil - Ayaar
4. Race: Slade Power - Due Diligence - Noozhoh Canarias
5. Race: Lashkaal - Ya Latif - Nufooth
6. Race: Disavow - Vegas Rebel - When Will It End
7. Race: Phaenomena - Devilment - Mica Mika