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Thursday's ITV Racing Tips: Ben Linfoot’s Newmarket July Festival day one best bets and selections

Horse Racing

Thu July 09, 2026 · 2w ago

Our form expert has three selections for day one of the Debenhams July Festival at Newmarket on Thursday.

The Verdict: Thursday July 9

1pt win Sea Cookie in the 15:00 Newmarket at 8/1 (bet365, 15/2 General)

1pt e.w Pilu in the 15:00 Newmarket at 18/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4, 16/1 General)

1pt win Almeric in the 15:35 Newmarket at 7/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral, 13/2 General)

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Almeric to sink a certain Romance

Rebel's Romance is the star attraction on day one of the Debenhams July Festival at Newmarket on Thursday but he will have to avoid the fate of many a vanquished favourite in the feature Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes.

Last year Palladium (13/8) joined a long list of beaten favourites in this race that includes Hamish (11/10), Adayar (1/3), Al Aasy (1/2), Enbihaar (9/4), Masar (5/6), Mirage Dancer (2/1) and Frontiersman (5/4) in recent years and plenty of those had a significant advantage on official ratings.

Charlie Appleby’s horse has plenty up his sleeve on that score and he’s got a good record fresh, too, but he does have a Group 2 penalty to concede and he is in the second half of his eight-year-old career now so it’s not too difficult to see regression creeping in soon.

I’m keen to take him on at the prices and the one I like is Andrew Balding’s ALMERIC who looks big at 7/1 under Oisin Murphy.

There’s a school of thought building that he needs softer ground to be at his best and while that might well be the case he looks far from a one-dimensional mudlark to me and I thought he ran well behind two classy 10-furlong operators in Ombudsman and Gethin in the Brigadier Gerard last time.

Outpaced in the final furlong, he looked like a horse ready to step up to 1m4f and going the extra quarter mile for the first time really could spark significant improvement in him judging by his pedigree.

He’s from a strong staying family and is related to several performers who won over 1m4f and further, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a career-best from him at a track that should play to his strengths (has won on the Rowley Mile).

This could be tactical in a small field with no obvious pace on, but Murphy is a jockey to have on your side in such a situation and in Almeric he might just have a partner who will thrive now going out in trip.

The Verdict: Back ALMERIC in the 15:35 Newmarket

Almeric⁴²

Age: 4| Weight: 9-8| J: Oisin Murphy| T: A M Balding| OR: 115

5/1

Pilu nice at the price for Teal

In the Betway Handicap over six furlongs for three-year-old sprinters Roger Teal’s PILU looks a massive price at around 18/1.

Teal has a very good record in three-year-old sprint handicaps, winning 18 from 102 at 17.65% at +£59.81 to £1 at SP, and he looks to have saved Pilu for this.

He’s likely identified this race for him from a long way out given his mark of 88 and that number could be lenient on several bits of form.

As a two-year-old he gave 5lb and a beating to Simplify, now rated 95, at Bath, and at Salisbury he gave 9lb to Alarming, now rated 92, when beating her comfortably.

More recent evidence came at Leicester in May in a good contest where he was second to Jazl and ahead of subsequent winner Amazing Journey, the son of Coulsty running a big race and improving significantly for his Newmarket reappearance.

That was the same Leicester race that Prince Of India was second in before he won this Betway Handicap (was also kept back for this) 12 months ago and Teal has booked the same jockey, Marco Ghiani, for the job, as well.

Ghiani has a good record for Teal (four from 19 at 21%) and from his far-side draw he is expected to run well.

I want a saver on SEA COOKIE at 8/1 as I was taken with his course and distance win last time.

Local trainer Tom Clover is another to keep on the right side of in these 3YO handicap sprints (12 from 52 at 23.08% +£20.45) and he also has a great record on the July Course, where this horse relished the uphill finish last time.

He is up 5lb in a better race, but he looks on a steep upward curve following wind surgery and being gelded and I think he’s going to be finishing well once again.

Jack Callan takes over from his dad in the saddle and takes off a vital 3lb, while for all Thunder Call and Calico Blue have their own appeal for bigger trainers Sea Cookie is the one I fear most from towards the top of the betting.