John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Saturday.
More Thunder the one to beat down in grade
Several runners on Ascot’s card will be having their first start since competing at the Royal meeting there last month and chief among those is the Queen Anne Stakes runner-up More Thunder who looks the one to beat in the Summer Mile Stakes (14:27) which is run on the round course rather than the straight mile of the Queen Anne. More Thunder’s trainer William Haggas has won the Summer Mile three times, with Aqlaam and twice with Mutakayyef.
Starting out in sprint handicaps last season, including when beaten a head in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot, More Thunder went on to win the Bunbury Cup on this day last year before following up in the Hungerford Stakes at Newbury on his pattern-race debut. Stepping up from seven furlongs this season, he has proven himself a very smart horse at a mile with second places in the Lockinge Stakes as well as the Queen Anne.
He managed to turn the Lockinge form round with Notable Speech at Royal Ascot only to find 50/1-shot Ten Bob Tony half a length too good having had every chance well inside the final furlong. More Thunder is reopposed from the Queen Anne by Zeus Olympios and the 2025 Queen Anne winner Docklands who were fourth and seventh respectively and can account for that pair again, having also had Zeus Olympios behind him at Newbury the time before.
Raammee can land third John Smith’s Cup for Roger Varian
No fewer than four runners in a maximum field of 22 for York’s John Smith’s Cup (15:45) earned the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag last time out but just about pick of the weights at the head of the Timeform adjusted ratings is one of that quartet Raammee.
Raammee’s ‘Hot Trainer’ Roger Varian first won the John Smith’s Cup in 2014 with Farraaj, owned like his latest contender by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, while two years ago he saddled the first two when Enfjaar got the better of Botanical. Enfjaar was a lightly-raced four-year-old and Raammee has a similar profile though has had even less racing and has raced only at a mile so far.
He won both his novices last season, bolting up by a dozen lengths at Newcastle on the second occasion, and has confirmed himself a useful performer in a couple of handicaps at Sandown this season. He was a bit too fresh for his own good on his reappearance but settled better with a hood fitted last time and saw his race out better too, keeping on to take second in the final fifty yards and beaten half a length by another progressive four-year-old Beagle Bay. Raammee was still green last time so there’s further improvement in him off the same mark, with the step up in trip a likely plus too.
July Cup can go to Japan for second time
History was made 26 years ago when Yutaka Take got the favourite Agnes World in front in a finish of short heads to the July Cup (16:35) to become the first Japanese-trained horse to win on British soil. Agnes World had already struck in Europe, having won the previous season’s Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp, and this year’s Japanese contender Satono Reve is no stranger in these parts either.
The Noriyoki Hori-trained seven-year-old entire won one of Japan’s only two Group 1 sprints, the Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March for the second year running, but has yet to get his head in front overseas. To be fair, he’s been banging his head against a brick wall up against Hong Kong superstar Ka Ying Rising on his own patch at Sha Tin, finishing runner-up in his latest meeting with him there in April, but he’s entitled to be more competitive against Europe’s top sprinters.
His runs in the last two editions of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes when runner-up both times show that Satono Reve, who heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings, is up with the best of them. He went even closer than the year before when coming off second-best in a four-way photo last month, beaten a nose by Almeraq who came from further back to edge it on the post. It won’t take much to turn the tables on that rival here, with the other Royal Ascot winners Venetian Sun (Commonwealth Cup) and Mission Central (King Charles III Stakes) also demanding respect.
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