Graham Cunningham on the July Cup, another Sandown photo howler and why a July Derby should not happen

Remember the pre-Covid days when more than 100,000 people flocked to the races on the second weekend in July? Super Saturday is slowly getting its mojo back as crowds return to the track and the Darley July Cup – along with dodgy photos and Derby debates – are all included in this week’s Cunningham File.

Dragon to blow hot as sprinting stars align

Only one horse can add his or her name to the July Cup roll of honour at Newmarket this Saturday – maybe two if last week’s Sandown judge is back on deck – and picking the winner is tough. Timeform ratings have eight horses rated within 7lb of each other and the fact that they all head to Newmarket in prime form raises key questions.

What do the ratings suggest?

That this is a bang-up-to-scratch and wide-open renewal of Europe’s premier six-furlong contest. Last year’s winner Oxted is top having recorded a career best TF mark of 126 in winning the King’s Stand, but the ever-improving Rohaan and Starman are just 1lb and 2lb behind with a host of other dangers in the mix if they can build on recent high-class efforts.

Will July Cup blood win out?

Speed begets speed at this level and this year’s race has a strong Dads and Lads (and one Lass) feel. Chipchase winner Chil Chil is by crack Aussie sprinter Exceed And Excel, who flopped in this back in 2004, while Glen Shiel’s sire Pivotal finished sixth in 1996 and Starman’s sire Dutch Art came up just short behind Marchand D’Or in 2007. But the sire on fire coming into this year’s race is Mayson. A biblical deluge helped Richard Fahey’s colt demolish his rivals at 20-1 on this day in 2012 and it’s great to see his two best sons – Oxted and Rohaan – aiming to emulate their old man after dynamic Ascot wins

Will Murphy’s Law come in to play?

Whatever could go wrong did go wrong for Oisin as Dragon Symbol lost the Commonwealth Cup in the Stewards’ room but the Irishman has a chance to make amends for Ascot frustration on a colt with a high cruising speed and scope for more improvement. Dragon Symbol clearly handles the mud but there is plenty about him that suggests a faster surface will see him in an even better light – and that makes him a danger to all.

Is Oxted the right boy to double up?

More than sixty years have passed since Right Boy and Lester Piggott won consecutive July Cups and the fact that no horse has emulated him since is telling. Oxted bounced back to form with a vengeance in a King’s Stand run at a blazing pace but this looks a deeper field than last year and, for all that he’s highly likely to go well again, the suspicion remains that there might be something to improve past him.

Can Starman blow our minds?

It was this week in 1972 that David Bowie changed the face of pop by appearing on Top Of The Pops to perform Starman in full Ziggy Stardust regalia. The equine Starman seeks to change the face of the British sprint division in more sober colours but his claims are there for all to see after making it four wins from five starts by leaving Oxted and Art Power toiling under Murphy in the Duke of York. Newmarket’s rolling six presents a different test to York’s flat strip but Ed Walker’s colt clearly has G1 ability and the Lambourn handler has upped the ante by warning that “second isn’t good enough here.”

So where does the value lie?

Aidan O’Brien’s decision to pull Lope Y Fernandez out at the 48-hour stage has kyboshed my longshot angle and, in his absence, it’s a case of trying to highlight pros and cons among other leading candidates. Rohaan is certainly one of them but this isn’t an easy race for confirmed holdup horses to shine in, while Glen Shiel probably needs softer ground and Oxted’s King’s Stand win may not be all it quite appears on paper. Creative Force and Art Power both have plenty to recommend them, but Starman and Dragon Symbol look the coming forces in this division. Murphy knows plenty about both but he has a high-class partner in Dragon Symbol and, with or without the stewards, his prospects look very bright indeed.

Third strike puts Sandown in the frame again

If someone with eyesight as dodgy as mine can spot that the Judge has made a rick at first glance then you know you’re in trouble. Jane Green took very little time to announce that Phoenix Star had shaded Hurricane Ivor in the opener at Sandown on Coral-Eclipse day and the embarrassing walkback that followed has left punters guessing on several levels.

What’s the rush?

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of Dave Smith – the Usain Bolt of judges – being relieved of his duties when it emerged that a dead-heat he called after just fifty seconds of deliberation at Kempton was in fact a nose success for Extra Noble. Green didn’t take much longer to rule on Saturday but, with so much riding on close calls, it makes zero sense to rush things.

Why Sandown again?

Tight finishes at Sandown occur fairly frequently – there have been more than 20 short head or nose verdicts on the Flat since 2018 – but for one venue to have two wrong calls on the level and another over jumps in the same period is uncanny. Clerk Andrew Cooper has ample credit in the bank with media members and BHA raceday officials aren’t part of his in-house team. But Cooper is the public face of Sandown and this latest fiasco means that, to paraphrase Derek “Thommo” Thomson, he can’t keep leaving it solely to the judge.

What really happened?

The judge clearly rushed into a bad call. Stewards asked her to “revisit” the print, which is a polite way of saying “you had one job.” A dead heat was called on the basis that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to call a winner. And the scent of fudge hung in the air as the BHA’s Shaun Parker switched the focus from the judge to a misaligned Racetech camera. With so much going on, Parker can be excused for not saying sorry to fans and punters left frustrated and out of pocket. But, unless I’ve missed the memo, the failure of his BHA bosses to follow up with an apology this week is much harder to explain.

What will Racetech think?

Difficult to be sure but it’s hard to think management were impressed to see the blame pushed so swiftly and firmly in their direction when the core blunder clearly originated in the judge’s box. It wasn’t a good week for the tech provider, who are investigating a Hamilton accident which resulted in two camera operators falling from a cherry picker, but the blame for last week’s embarrassment certainly shouldn’t fall solely on their shoulders.

And what comes next?

An appeal from Hurricane Ivor’s connections could shed valuable light on the matter but an internal inquiry followed by a carefully worded Press release looks favourite. The woman or man who never made a mistake never made much but British racing can’t keep brushing off incidents like this as ‘one of those things.’ Saturday’s contest opened one of the biggest showcases of the year with international fans betting well over £20m into the World Pool alone. “Amateur hour again” was the pithy message from one of those fans. And, however your camera is aligned, it’s a view that’s hard to argue with.

John (and Frank) sum up Derby debate perfectly

Fancy a Derby run in July rather than June with the distance reduced from twelve furlongs to ten?

Two RP regulars have been ruminating on radical revamps, with Lee Mottershead floating a delayed Derby and Julian Muscat suggesting Britain should consider emulating France by reducing the race distance.

It’s hard to know where to begin here – and there is zero value in getting vexed about proposals that are a million to come off – so perhaps it’s best just to channel Harry Enfield’s perma-peeved Frank Doberman character and say “Oi, Motty and Musky – NO!”

Mottershead used Oliver Cole and Richard Hoiles as delayed Derby disciples, the latter treading a typically cautious path before coming out in favour of running the Derby, Oaks and Eclipse on the same weekend in July and the former showing an alarming but not shocking lack of foresight in saying “I really can’t see any harm in staging the Guineas and Derby later.”

Meanwhile, Muscat pointed to the feats of Prix du Jockey Club winners like Almanzor, Sottsass, Mishriff and St Mark’s Basilica and “a mindset that shuns 12-furlong horses at stud” to bolster a case for slashing the Derby distance.

Galileo, Sea The Stars and Australia might want a word about the being shunned at stud angle, while the Cole and Hoiles arguments hardly look seductive when you consider what a ruinous effect a delayed Derby would inevitably have on races like the Eclipse and Irish Derby.

But there’s no need for fellow scribes to highlight flaws in the Hot Take division when a precision operator like John Oxx is on the case. The Derby is priceless in its historic slot because it exposes what a budding champion can’t do as well as what he can do and Oxx highlighted its eternal value with the same cool clarity that hallmarked his handling of STS and countless other stars.

“The great thing about the Derby is that it’s a mystery going into it,” he said. “A Derby staged later in the year wouldn’t be nearly as interesting because by then we would already know which order the ducks were in.”

“The really good horses have to go from the Guineas to the Derby with only four or five weeks to ready themselves to run on a totally different track over 50 per cent more distance and having had little time to recover.

“That’s the sort of durability and mental strength we’re looking for in the Thoroughbred. The Classics answer those questions. They always have done and they continue to do so. Muck with them at your peril.”

Or, as that man Doberman might say: “Oi, NO!”

Random Shots

Goldie rolls on as Monarch of the Glen

Scotland’s footballers had to settle for a draw at Wembley but Jim Goldie’s cross border raids paid another handsome dividend when Euchen Glen notched the twelfth win of his career in Sandown’s Gala Stakes. The doughty eight-year-old recorded a career-best Timeform rating of 119 under Paul Mulrennan, passing popular sprinters Orientor and Hawkeyethenoo to become the highest rated horse of Big Jim’s career, and fellow veteran Nicholas T is out to continue the Goldie hot streak in Saturday’s John Smith’s Cup at York.

Money matters as St Mark’s rolls on

All the chat about why St Mark’s Basilica went for the French Guineas and Derby rather than the British versions seems to have missed an important point. The Siyouni colt picked up £306,000 for winning at Longchamp and £765,000 for winning at Chantilly. That’s well over £200,000 more than he would have won at HQ and Epsom – and there’s ample time for him to square off with Poetic Flare again this year.

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