Matt Brocklebank looks over the entries for the July Cup which were released this week and weighs up the young guns versus the more experienced sprinters.
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When: Saturday July 11
Where: Newmarket, July Course (Live on ITV and Racing TV, Sky Channel 424)
Distance: Six furlongs
Prize-money: £800,000 (winner takes £453,680 - could increase if supplementary entries made)
Ages: For three-year-olds and upwards
Weights: Three-year-old colts and geldings 9st 2lb; three-year-old fillies 8st 13lb; four-year-olds and up colts and geldings 9st 8lb; four-year-olds and up fillies/mares 9st 5lb (all horses must have BHA rating of 80+)
The three-year-old filly
Since its inception in 2015 the Commonwealth Cup has been a fantastic pointer towards the July Cup, with four of the past 10 Newmarket winners having either won or finished in the frame in the Royal Ascot race. Last year wasn't a case in point, although Big Mojo was an eyecatching seventh in the Commonwealth Cup before just missing out by a neck to No Half Measures on the July Course at HQ.
Going even further back, the July Cup has been a fine race for the Classic generation as 20 three-year-olds have emerged on top since Moorestyle under record-holding Lester Piggott in 1980. Piggott ended his remarkable time in the saddle with 10 July Cup wins between 1957 and 1992.
That period also features the last three-year-old filly to win the July Festival's feature event - Habibti in 1983 - and that responsibility falls on Venetian Sun to try and reverse the trend this time around. Venetian Sun looks the standout younger sprinter at the moment based on her Sandy Lane and Commonwealth Cup victories, and it's understandable that Timeform were happy to state she should probably be judged more closely on what she achieved at Haydock rather than Ascot.
Trainer Karl Burke has insisted that some ease in the ground suits his daughter of Starman so it was seemingly her innate class that saw her home on the quick going last week, narrowly holding off another filly in Spicy Marg, with Sandy Lane runner-up Division a close third on this occasion.
The Commonwealth Cup winning time was 1m 12.08s (slow by 0.08s) and the July Cup generally presents much more of a speed test on account of the track's own idiosyncrasies. Mayson ploughed through the heavy going in 2012 to win the July Cup in an overall time of 1:15.90, with Slade Power's 2014 success recorded in 1:12.40, but all other Newmarket winners since (and including) Oasis Dream in 2003 have been under the 1:12.04 run by Venetian Sun at Ascot - some by a considerable margin, including four-year-old filly Alcohol Free who stopped the clock at 1:09.47 four summers ago.
So it's not a given this impressive-looking filly, who started her season running over a mile in the 1000 Guineas, will have the gears for next month's first foray into the open division against older sprinters.
The three-year-old colts
If not her, then who?
Let's stick with the youthful improvers for now given that persuasive historical record and Mission Central leaps off the page, having won all three starts this year. Granted, they've come at the minimum trip of five furlongs but pure pace is a real asset here remember, despite plenty of July Cup winners having started their campaigns as Classic aspirants (something I've conveniently overlooked in the Venetian Sun segment, on reflection).
Mission Central did win three times at two, culminating in the newly-introduced conditions event for juveniles on Ascot's Champions Day card in October, so it's not like his fruitful spring forays to Naas were much of a shock, but last week's Charles III Stakes triumph over Rayevka was a good jump forward by the son of No Nay Never, the sire of Aidan O'Brien's most recent (of five in total) July Cup winner Ten Sovereigns in 2019.
His record so far over six furlongs stands at an unblemished 3-3 and continued sunshine would be a boost as he's yet to encounter anything worse than 'good to yielding'.
Both O'Brien stablemates still engaged, Charles Darwin and Brussels, have lots to prove now although the former did start his campaign with a win so I'd be loathe to completely write him off and the experiment with blinkers seems likely to be shelved after his Commonwealth Cup no-show - albeit a bit short of room in the final couple of furlongs before weakening.
The aforementioned Division - a son of Kingman and campaigned exclusively at the July Cup trip to this point - is a player here on pure form terms, while Coppull could manage only eighth behind Venetian Sun last Friday but 'won' the mini-race among the eight horses who stayed stands' side (the bulk of the action playing out middle-to-far).
The Jersey Stakes has produced some nice sprinting types down the years but 2000 Guineas fourth Into The Sky failed to make any sort of impression over seven furlongs and could be hard to place this term, while Lifeplan can boast an unbeaten record but the Gimcrack winner has been off games with a tooth issue followed by a bad scope and can't be seriously included in this conversation until we see him hit the track as a three-year-old.
The mares
There are no four-year-old fillies entered at this stage so Alcohol Free and Fleeting Spirit won't be emulated in 2026 but a late-maturing, five-year-old Frizzante did strike gold for James Fanshawe and Johnny Murtagh here in 2004 and there are a couple of mares in the mix who both certainly merit a mention.
Flora Of Bermuda and Rosy Affair tie in quite neatly too as only a head could separate them when filling the first two places in a Listed event at Newmarket last month, since when they've produced contrasting efforts at the Royal meeting.
Flora Of Bermuda, in danger of entering the frustratingly disappointing bracket prior to her comeback score at HQ, became restless in the stalls before the QEII Jubilee Stakes and was eventually eased right down, with Rosy Affair (who had won easily at Haydock in between) coping well with a drop to five furlongs and justifying trainer George Boughey's lofty opinion of her with a running-on fourth to Mission Central in the Charles III.
A bit like Frizzante, Rosy Affair is definitely a late bloomer, having initially been rated 74 at the start of her handicap career, and she's settling a lot better in her races these days. Drawn 11 at Ascot, where the other half-dozen among the first seven home came from stalls 24, 15, 19, 23, 22 and 26, her effort could be marked up slightly and it's worth noting she's been to the July Course three times in the past, recording a win and two seconds - all over six furlongs.
The four-year-olds
Five of the last six July Cup winners have been aged four and it looks likely we could see another strong representation from that age group this year.
William Haggas on Monday all but confirmed that Almeraq is on course for Newmarket and the Shadwell-owned colt is a real success story for the team given he was in a horrible fall at York just last September before being nurtured back to full strength.
Almeraq had Prince Of India in behind when making a successful return to action in Salisbury's Cathedral Stakes and there appeared no fluke about his nose defeat of Satono Reve and Australian star Joliestar last weekend, in a time 0.18s faster than standard. Comanche Brave was further back in seventh on Saturday.
Almeraq is open to any amount of further improvement after seven career starts, especially on softer ground as the year goes on given how impressive he looked at Ayr (good to soft) last year, and it's a little surprising to see he's still on offer at 5/1 at the time of writing.
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Double Rush scraped home under a big weight in the Wokingham and fully deserves his shot at a pattern race, though this one will be a baptism of fire. Powerful Glory is not the easiest to train and had to skip his Royal outing having found to be lame, while Noble Champion isn't a six-furlong Group One horse, though presumably plenty of people had written Ten Bob Tony off prior to his surprise win for the same connections in the Queen Anne.
Marvelman is another who should be suited by further, while last year's second Big Mojo hasn't really got going yet this term and it could be that he'll continue to struggle at the top table now without the three-year-old allowance.
Symbol Of Honour is potentially a bit of a dark horse among the four-year-olds as he didn't run badly out in Dubai right at the start of the year and was sent off just 4/1 for the 2025 July Cup, finishing eighth but better than that considering where he was drawn and the stands' side bias on the day. Charlie Appleby tends to fare much better on his own turf at Newmarket and this son of Havana Grey is one to monitor (entered for this Saturday's Chipchase).
The older campaigners
Older horses find life tough in this event and the aforementioned Slade Power remains the only five-year-old winner since Marchand d'Or for France in 2008.
Fanshawe is as patient as they come, as already touch upon, and it's his Kind Of Blue who looks the likeliest of the three older gun-slingers in this year's July Cup. He's been rather in-and-out since graduating into the big league but is capable of high-class form when fit and firing, as evidenced by his second to Big Mojo in last year's Sprint Cup at Haydock and this spring's second to Elmonjed in the Minster Stakes at York.
Quinault likes the Newmarket undulations but was beaten 16 lengths in the Minster and doesn't look to be getting any quicker, while Mitbaahy ran a game race for fifth behind Double Rush in the Wokingham, his first outing since a second recorded wind op, but even his career-best form from a couple of years back shouldn't be good enough. The eight-year-old Diligent Harry, meanwhile, is an all-weather specialist and now 0-20 on the turf.
The overseas interest
The past three editions haven't featured a single horse trained outside of Britain and Ireland which has definitely taken something away from the occasion. Prior to that we saw the Australian-based Artorius finish third in 2022, with a Japanese outsider back in the field, and there was an American raider (Extravagent Kid, unplaced) in the 2021 running won by Starman.
Namos ran for Germany the year before that and 2018 saw another Aussie take to the Newmarket turf as Redkirk Warrior looked to fare a bit better than he had at Ascot (he didn't). The Mongolian native, US-based trainer Enebish Ganbat saddled his stable star (Mongolian Saturday) in Limato's Cup a decade ago, while the honours board of this great race features the likes of Andre Fabre, Criquette Head-Maarek, her brother Freddy Head, and Japan's Hideyuki Mori.
France and Japan could both be back for another shot next month with Lazzat and Satono Reve respectively. They finished first and second in last year's Jubilee and remain as good as ever based on this year's evidence, Lazzat successful in a seven-furlong Group Three at Longchamp last month and Satono Reve bouncing out of his four and a quarter-length defeat to Ka Ying Rising at Sha Tin with another admirable effort in defeat at Ascot, this time nosed out of it by Almeraq.
That looks the key piece of form when it comes to finding the July Cup winner and it might not be long before the Haggas-trained horse is challenging for favouritism, particular if there's a break in this baking weather over the next couple of weeks.
Published at 16:00 BST on 24/06/26
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