July Cup reflections: Seven best performances on Timeform ratings
So what's your favourite July Cup of the last 20 years? Oh go on I've cheated - let's make it 22.
It makes sense you see, I'm using the seven best winning performances on Timeform ratings and what's two years among friends if it means you can include one that stands out from its contemporaries.
I thought it would be Oasis Dream. I vividly remember him mastering the monster that was Choisir inside the final furlong of a desperate speed duel and striking for John Gosden and Richard Hughes.
He was brilliant that day but he has to sit mid-division in this list as Ballydoyle colts thunder to the top of the hit parade.
133 Stravinsky (1999)
It's a common theme when it comes to this race but connections had initially campaigned this colt as miler. He was sent off favourite for the Dewhurst as a juvenile and despite finishing third to Mujahid (connections blamed rain-softened ground for his defeat), went into the winter as 2000 Guineas favourite.
Classic aspirations had to be shelved when Tarfaa claimed his scalp at the Curragh in the March of the three-year-old campaign and from there it was to Royal Ascot where plenty of people questioned his attitude as he finished fourth in the Jersey.
Connections reached for two things – sprinting and a visor – and they were the making of him. He was sensational at Newmarket – treating 13 previous pattern winners with contempt as he smashed the track record. Travelling strongly throughout the contest, he bounded clear inside the distance to beat Bold Edge by four lengths. It was a stunning display.
He duly followed up in the Nunthorpe at York but was only seen once more, finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park when seemingly ill-at-ease on the dirt surface.
Stravinsky twice contested sprints on turf and was brilliant on both days. The impression he made in the July Cup will linger long in the memory.
131 Mozart (2001)
When O’Brien wins the July Cup it’s with a good one and two years after Stravinsky came Mozart.
Like his stablemate he’d taken in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot but unlike him he won – beating Alderbaran by a neck. But he saved the real fireworks for Newmarket.
Quickly away and soon in front of the group racing by the stands’ sail there was never a moment of concern for Mick Kinane or his backers.
He gradually went through the gears inside the final two furlongs and one by one his rivals cracked. Fleetingly Cassandra Go looked a threat but as she angled out for a sighter of the leader, he’d gone – and kept going.
By the line he was a widening three-and-a-half lengths clear in the second fastest time in the history of the race. He went on to win a Nunthorpe before bowing out at the Breeders’ Cup but this was very much his career-defining performance.
128+ Limato (2016)
He was still winning Group races at the age of eight last year but now, in his well-earned retirement, Limato can gaze over his paddock fence and look back on the 2016 July Cup. That was his finest hour.
He’d gone close to Group One glory in the previous year’s Commonwealth Cup but there was never any doubt that he had this in the bag from the moment he took command two furlongs out.
Inside the distance Harry Bentley went through the gears and despite drifting to his right as he quickened, Henry Candy’s charge swept clear for a convincing success.
It wasn’t a vintage July Cup field – but it had a winner worthy of inclusion in this list – and a horse who was to run in three more renewals, finishing second to Harry’s Angel in 2017.
128 Oasis Dream (2003)
A Middle Park winner at two, he headed straight to the King’s Stand Stakes as a three-year-old and ran as connections suggested he might, showing good speed before a lack of peak fitness told when third to Choisir and Acclamation.
All roads then led to Nemmarket and a rematch with his Australian conqueror. Revenge was sweet, John Gosden’s charge stalking Choisir through the race and taking his measure inside the distance for a length-and-a-half victory. Airwave finished well in third in a strong renewal.
The winner was another to follow up in the Coolmore Nunthorpe, producing a clock-busting display on the Knavesmire to draw comparisons with the magical Dayjur, before getting bogged down in the mud at Haydock.
He bowed out with a non-staying tenth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile but was a sprinter through and through and at Newmarket and York, one of the best I’ve seen.
128 Sakhee’s Secret (2007)
Brilliantly handled by Hughie Morrison, Sakhee’s Secret had been brought along steadily. This was his D-day and finest hour.
Characteristically he travelled strongly and when switched to challenge two furlongs out, produced a devastating turn of foot.
It carried him to the front inside the distance and despite drifting to his left under Steve Drowne, he was to stay there.
Dutch Art tried to challenge but there was never a danger of the prize leaving Sakhee’s Secret’s grasp. It looked like he had the sprinting world at his hooves that day but he was never to win again.
128 Starspangledbanner (2010)
What a horse he was. Australian sprinters had already showed they could more than match their European counterparts through the exploits of Choisir and Takeover Target.
This colt was a Group One winner at a mile and five-and-a-half furlongs in his native land before being shipped to Ballydoyle by Coolmore. As a Southern hemisphere four-year-old he started his new campaign with a promising fifth in the Duke Of York. It was a sighter.
A strong field assembled for the Golden Jubilee Stakes but his rivals never saw which way Starspangledbanner went after he grabbed the stands’ rail and led the field a merry dance.
It was then onto Newmarket and the fast – very fast – Equiano led him for four-and-a-half furlongs. He never threw in the towel either but the Ballydoyle colt had his measure throughout the climb to the line.
In the winners’ enclosure afterwards plans to ship the Starsspangledbanner off to stud in Australia were shelved – but he was never to win again. He’d already established a significantly legacy on both sides of the world though.
128 Lethal Force (2013)
Another to complete the Diamond Jubilee – July Cup double – and with similar performances too.
He was bounced out of the stalls by Adam Kirby to lead and stayed there, beating Society Rock by two lengths in Berkshire and a length-and-half in Suffolk.
This was peak Lethal Force, bouncing off the fast ground and proving too hot to handle.
Again this was to be his last win, Moonlight Cloud sweeping past in the Prix Maurice de Gheest before an off-day in the Haydock Sprint Cup, but at Ascot and here in July, he was a top-notch sprinter.
- So who's your favourite July Cup winner and why? Send your thoughts to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com.
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