Richard Hughes is all smiles after No Half Measure's victory

July Cup analysis and reaction: Cup half full for Richard Hughes

By Matt Brocklebank

Horse Racing

Mon July 14, 2025 · 5M ago

Matt Brocklebank reflects on a shock win for No Half Measures in Saturday's July Cup at Newmarket.

There was no obvious sprinting star in Britain and Ireland heading into Saturday’s Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai July Cup. That was still the case as the dust settled on No Half Measures' 66/1 success – the biggest-priced winner in the race’s history.

This is a weak division at the moment, there’s no escaping it, and the Timeform ratings are going to underline that fact once the analysts have had the chance to fully digest the outcome, but it still made for a compelling spectacle.

How can you crab a filly who won four of her 11 starts during her maiden campaign last year? No Half Measures, a daughter of Cable Bay out of Helmet mare Fascinator, has progressed from a lowly Lingfield maiden last March into a Group 1-winning four-year-old.

Ten years into his training career, she becomes trainer Richard Hughes’ breakthrough winner at the highest level and jockey Neil Callan’s first since Triple Time caused a similar upset (33/1) in the 2023 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot.

Hughes, son of legendary Irish jockey-turned-trainer Dessie, has openly had his struggles and occasionally appears to have the weight of the world on his shoulders but can now look forward to campaigning his filly at the top table for the remainder of the year.

She’d won over five and six furlongs; she’d won on heavy going in the autumn at Newbury. She has now delivered a monumental boost for the yard at the height of summer on rattling-quick ground in one of the principal races in the Flat season calendar.

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There were a handful of three-year-olds in the race all told – the younger generation having stuck gold nine times since the turn of the century – but there was no Shaquille, Muhaarar or Dream Ahead in this year’s line-up, and Hughes will have been acutely aware there was no Oasis Dream, who famously gave him his first taste of domestic Group 1 glory as a jockey in the July Cup and Nunthorpe of 2003. And more power to those who gave it a go.

Hughes senior achieved a huge amount in his lifetime but was arguably best known for the near-miracles he worked with cheap purchase Hardy Eustace, who went on to become a dual Champion Hurdle hero. “He probably helped me there” the words of his proud son as he wiped away tears of joy in the winner’s enclosure after the feature race on a hectic ‘Super Saturday’.

For neck second Big Mojo, there will almost certainly be other days and opportunities given he raced up the centre of the track and might not have been helped by that fact.

His effort probably wants marking up a little as the pace was put into the contest by Night Raider and Spy Chief, drawn 1 and 14 respectively, although to suggest it was a ‘draw race’ would be wide of the mark as No Half Measures, who did initially get a nice tow into things from Spy Chief having been housed highest of all in 15, ended up in the centre of the course. Big Mojo should be heading for the Nunthorpe at York, where he was fourth in last year's Nunthorpe.

Run To Freedom has previous in the July Cup, finishing second to Shaquille a couple of years ago, and consigned his five subsequent efforts to the past with a belting effort in third, while Believing – in foal to Frankel – was a creditable fourth under Billy Loughnane on her swansong outing before retirement.

Believing was also in the centre group and taken back early before meeting a spot of trouble when trying to squeeze between Ides Of March and Symbol Of Honour two furlongs from home. She ran on late in typical fashion and heads to the paddocks as a Group 1 winner (Al Quoz Sprint) but also something of a ‘what if’ story after her bunch of near-misses last season.

Fifth was the disappointing favourite (85/40) Notable Speech, the name on everyone’s lips beforehand and the one major hope of taking the sprint scene by storm. It wasn’t to be, Charlie Appleby’s brilliant July Festival not quite ending in perfection after last year's 2000 Guineas winner failed to see the race out having traded at long odds-on in running when appearing to hit the front entering the final furlong.

His finishing effort was tame and it’s a wonder whether the significant drop in trip was to blame at all as his peak mile form should really have seen him home given that highly promising position at a key moment.

Perhaps they can regroup and get him back for the newly upgraded Sky Bet City Of York Stakes over seven furlongs next month, but that relative 'half measure' can wait for another day as Saturday was all about a smashing filly causing a proper stir – and a July Cup that you sense was more than half full for all of her joyous connections.

July Cup analysis and reaction: Cup half full for Richard Hughes

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