July Cup preview

Al Basti Equiworld Dubai July Cup preview: Sporting Life Podcast tips

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Thu July 10, 2025 · 5M ago

The Sporting Life Racing Podcast team are split over whether Notable Speech is the one to beat in Saturday's Al Basti Equiworld Dubai July Cup.

Last year's Betfred 2000 Guineas hero was supplemented into the race on Monday morning and will be sprinting for the first time in his career at the weekend.

Here are the views of the pundits.

Billy Nash: "Notable Speech has completely changed the complexion of the race. He’s Timeform top rated but that number comes over a mile. Will he cope with the drop back to six?

"Looking at his pedigree you’d say there’s no reason to say he shouldn’t and he’s a pretty keen-going horse over a mile. Maybe it will suit him but it’s kind of a stab in the dark. We’ve had loads of horses come down to the July Cup from the Guineas over the years, plenty have been placed at Newmarket, you can go back to Chief Singer, Green Desert, Ajdal, all placed in the Guineas and won the July Cup.

"I can’t remember the last Guineas winner to try and do it. Soviet Star won a French Guineas at three and the July Cup at four. It’s kind of unchartered territory, it’s an interesting move and maybe they just feel he’s not capable of competing with the top milers this year so they’ve decided to go a different route with him. Either way, I think he adds a massive amount to the race and he probably is the one to beat now."

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Ed Chamberlin: "It badly needed something like this to happen, it wasn’t particularly exciting or high quality July Cup then suddenly, boom, Notable Speech comes in and adds so much interest and spice to the race.

"I couldn’t back him personally at the price because he’s run OK in his two appearances over a mile this season but surely this is going to be a shock to the system. He’s been trained to settle in mile races and suddenly he’s going to have go lickety-split from the start in a July Cup and at these prices he wouldn’t be for me.

"The rest of them are much of a muchness so I’m going to throw a dart at one at a big price. Flora Of Bermuda is rock-solid but keeps finding a way to be beaten. She’s going to be there or thereabouts and will run her race but when you watch back her race at Royal Ascot last time and have a look at Iberian.

"I think he’s just coming back to something like his best form. Once upon a time he looked like he could be very good and has been reinvented as a sprinter, and in that race he’s on the wrong side of the track with Flora Of Bermuda and the front two are away and gone and much the best.

"But he’s level pegging with Flora Of Bermuda and she comes out and gives him an almighty bump and he’s right out on one wing. I thought he ran quite encouragingly. She’s 4/1 and 9/2, Iberian is a 33/1 chance and with extra places no doubt on offer, I’d much rather back a horse like him in a race like this."

Graham Cunningham: "In terms of a really good Guineas horse coming back in trip for the July Cup the most recent example would be Alcohol Free. She was a Coronation Stakes winner and trained largely as a miler before she went to Royal Ascot over six and ran OK and then won the July Cup.

"I was surprised when Notable Speech was added to the field, it took me a little unawares, and the more I think about it, the more I think it’s a very good move. The first point is he’d get banjo'ed by Field Of Gold in the Sussex Stakes trying to give a horse like that weight and secondly, we know its there in black and white, we’ve seen it many times, the British and Irish sprinters are just not flash.

"We saw that when Lazzat and Satono Reve rolled into Ascot and made Flora and co look second rate. A good Group One hose, and Notable Speech is one, should be going really well. He’s by Dubawi who doesn’t get many sprinters, but he got Creative Force and Space Blues, he can get good 1200m horses.

"The one caveat I’d have is I think they’re going to have to change the gameplan a little with Notable Speech, we've got to know him as a strong-travelling, hard-pulling, hold-up horse and coming from way back in a July Cup is not a recipe for success. I think they have to let him stride and track the speed and use his class late on. I get it completely and think if anything he’s a bit over-priced at 4/1."

William Buick celebrates as Notable Speech wins the Sussex Stakes

Matt Brocklebank: “I like the three-year-olds in here. I know Notable Speech has the class and the form in the book but I don’t like a stab in the dark at 3/1 in a Group One race personally.

"Whistlejacket is one of those horses that I think this has been the target for all along. I know he won on his comeback fairly narrowly from Ides Of March, but it was quite cosy and then he got beat by Babouche at Naas. He was odds-on that day but Ryan Moore reported he banged his head (in the stalls) and got very upset before the race and I don’t think we saw the best of him there. He then finished with petrol left in the tank in the Commonwealth Cup.

"I think you can really upgrade that performance, he was running on well, and from the same race I take my old mate Big Mojo too.

"I think there's definitely room for manoeuvre with him, there’s still improvement to come and the way he won at Ascot on his return, I thought this was a horse who was ready to kick on again and mix it with the best around. He went to Haydock and ran a perfectly respectable race in the Sandy Lane and had nowhere to go at Ascot.

"They are two horses lining up here off the back of efforts you can strike a line through and right now in mid-summer we are going to see the best of these two. The price on Whistlejacket is tightening up and 7/1 is possibly borderline for me though."

Al Basti Equiworld Dubai July Cup preview: Sporting Life Podcast tips

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