How long is it since Britain and Ireland had a bona fide above-average sprinter to laud?
Over five furlongs dual Nunthorpe winner Battaash, rated 136 by Timeform and retired in 2021, would be one of them, but over six furlongs things haven’t been so good.
Ka Ying Rising (Timeform rating 137) is the worldwide bar-setter, but those 132+ Timeform rated sprinters in the elite category have been very tough to find in recent years domestically.
Indeed, it has been over 10 years now since Muhaarar dominated the 2015 sprinting division, when he won the Commonwealth Cup, July Cup, Prix Maurice de Gheest and British Champions Sprint and was awarded a Timeform rating of 134.
He’s arguably the last homegrown six-furlong sprinter worthy of the elite mantle.
Winning multiple Group 1 sprints isn’t easy – there hasn’t been a dual winner of the July Cup since Right Boy in 1959 – and since Khaadem won his second Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2024 the eight open Group 1 races over six furlongs in the UK have gone to eight different horses; Mill Stream, Montassib, Kind Of Blue, Lazzat, No Half Measures, Big Mojo, Powerful Glory and Almeraq.
The best of those on Timeform ratings was Almeraq (126) with Powerful Glory (125) just behind, and with those eight winners having 66/1 and 200/1 winning SPs amongst them it’s fair to say it has become a wide open and head-scratching division.
However, with the hunt for the next elite sprinter stretching on, it is encouraging to see a July Cup line-up packed with potential and with solid yardstick and Japanese superstar Satono Reve (Timeform top-rated on 129) in there, a convincing defeat of that horse could well catapult the winner towards elite status.
The Elite Sprinter Wannabees
VENETIAN SUN (Timeform 128)
Perhaps the one with the biggest potential in the field is Karl Burke’s filly Venetian Sun. The daughter of Starman tried her hand at a Classic first, like so many sprinting superstars before her, but came up short in the Betfred 1000 Guineas where she trailed behind True Love by six lengths. No matter, she fairly trounced her rivals in the Sandy Lane back over six furlongs at Haydock after that and then won the Commonwealth Cup, arguably despite the fast ground, at Royal Ascot last time. She’ll have to deal with fast ground again but with the weight-for-age and sex allowances factored in it’s little wonder she heads the antepost betting. She won the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at this meeting last year and with the July Cup, Sprint Cup and Champions Sprint all looking viable options for her, she’s the number one hope to hit the elite bracket.
ALMERAQ (Timeform Rating 126)
You wouldn’t think there would be a four-year-old colt in the field that was even more unexposed than the three-year-old filly Venetian Sun, but that’s exactly what William Haggas’ Almeraq is. Indeed, he’s had just the seven career starts to Venetian Sun’s eight and he has bounced back from a most unfortunate incident at York last September when he clipped heels and fell, by returning off a 258-day break this season with two wins from two goes. The second of those was in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he beat Satono Reve by a nose, and if he puts further daylight between himself and the Japanese raider at Newmarket he could be well on the way to hitting those elite figures.
MISSION CENTRAL (Timeform Rating 126)
I’m pretty sure Mission Central is the only gelding Aidan O’Brien has trained to win a Group 1 and so when he says he’s a rapid horse, he does so without any future stallion career in mind. Battaash was an elite sprinting gelding and there have been many other very good sprinting geldings over the years, too, most recently Sole Power, The Tin Man, Regional, Montassib and Kinross to name but a few. Mission Central looks the latest cab off the rank in that regard and we saw for ourselves how quick he can be when he came from the rear to win the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes over five furlongs at Royal Ascot. He has to prove he can be as effective at six at this standard, but he is three from three over the distance and this course could suit his style, so there is certainly the potential there for this three-year-old to go up to another level.
POWERFUL GLORY (Timeform Rating 125)
The big question with Powerful Glory is, was it a fluke? The answer is we simply don’t know yet, but while the jury is out he has to come into the conversation when it comes to finding the next elite speedster. After all, he beat a deep field when landing the 2025 British Champions Sprint at 200/1, including top French sprinter Lazzat who had won that summer’s Jubilee at Royal Ascot. Richard & Peter Fahey’s son of Cotai Glory is the most lightly-raced horse in the field after just six career starts and a line can be put through his reappearance at the Curragh where he was considerately handled. Is he overpriced at 50/1 for Saturday’s July Cup? Probably. Is he a potential elite sprinter? Possibly. We’ll find out plenty on Saturday.
DOUBLE RUSH (Timeform Rating 124p)
There isn’t another top-level division as susceptible to one graduating from handicaps as the sprinters and Andrew Balding’s Double Rush looks well worth his place in Saturday’s July Cup field. The son of Blue Point has taken off since arriving at Kingsclere from Charlie Hills’ and has won handicaps off marks of 90, 95 and 105 in three starts for his new stable this season, a perfect record. Of course, the highlight came last time out in the Wokingham handicap where he saw off 26 rivals over the Ascot heath with a typical display of speed and bravery, a potentially dynamite cocktail now he takes on Group 1 sprinters. He has to improve again to prevail here, but not by much, and if he takes his stable record to four from four against this opposition we could well be looking at a new elite sprinter.
BEST OF THE REST
Four of the above won on their last start and bring unexposed and progressive profiles to the table, while the other one, Powerful Glory, already has a Group 1 in the bag and has had just the six career starts. The rest aren’t has seductive as that, but bits and pieces of form give them chances of July Cup glory and with it the possibility of taking their form towards elite level. Take Comanche Brave’s (Timeform 124) Group 2 Greenlands Stakes victory, for example, as he looked that day like a sprinter going places and he is unexposed over a trip of six furlongs. Big Mojo’s (Timeform 123) Betfair Sprint Cup win last September brings him into the argument, while Division (Timeform 121) was a tad unlucky when third behind Venetian Sun in the Commonwealth Cup. Coppull (Timeform 117) could also be better than he was able to show that day and he’s trained by a master when it comes to sprinters, Clive Cox.
SUMMARY
You can see why it is so hard to find a dominant horse in this division. Shorter distances make it more difficult for the same horse to keep on coming out on top while British and Irish breeders have simply not produced sprinters of a good enough quality to compete with the worldwide best in the sphere over the last decade and more.
It just goes to show, when you get sprinters of the class of Dayjur, Black Caviar, Muhaarar, Battaash and Ka Ying Rising, putting together monster winning sequences, they deserve every plaudit that comes their way. Newer sires like Starman and Blue Point, represented here by Venetian Sun and Double Rush, respectively, could breathe new life into the UK sprinting scene, though, and while we might not be on the cusp of finding one to join that aforementioned illustrious list, a handful of horses have teed themselves up for July Cup glory and with it the chance of joining the elite crew. Hopefully we see something special on Saturday.
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