Check out Graeme North's thoughts on the key action from Newmarket, York and Deauville this weekend including Alcohol Free and Royal Acclaim.
The highlight of Newmarket’s July Meeting was, as ever, the Darley July Cup which for the second time in four years went the way of a horse sired by No Nay Never after his daughter Alcohol Free clocked a time of 69.47 seconds, just 0.36 seconds slower than the fastest time for the race this century set by Lethal Force in 2013.
As I said many times before, fast times don’t always translate into fast timefigures as race times aren’t assessed in isolation or in comparison with historical renewals but instead in the context of the other time performances on the same card on the same day once influencing factors such as ability, weight and weight-for-age have been considered.
Lethal Force’s winning time was sufficiently fast compared to all the other races run that same day at Newmarket in 2013 to return a 130 timefigure; Alcohol Free’s wasn’t sufficiently fast to return any more than 116, decent enough certainly but towards the lower end of winning July Cup timefigures this century and a few pounds shy of her career-topping 119 she posted in 2021 when becoming the first filly to win the Sussex Stakes since Soviet Song in 2004.
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Runner-up Naval Crown (115) wasn’t far below his Platinum Jubilee winning timefigure of 120 with Artorius (who didn’t seem to handle the track at all well to me having made a mess of the start) and Creative Force further underlining the strength of the Jubilee form. Alcohol Free had finished ninth in that race, not beaten far up the unfavoured middle, on what was her first try sprinting since she won the Cheveley Park back in 2020.
Alcohol Free’s win brought back memories of the great Chief Singer, who also completed the July Cup – Sussex Stakes double in the same colours in the mid -eighties.
Like Alcohol Free, Chief Singer also ran in the Juddmonte International (then known as the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup) but like his successor failed to stay the trip, though in finishing third he still managed to finish one place ahead of the mighty Sadler’s Wells. That the July Cup – Sussex Stakes double is rarely attempted let alone achieved these days (though the July Cup has always been something of a calling station for horses yet to find their forte, as Ajdal showed after failing to stay in the Derby) is a reminder just how infrequently modern top-class racehorses get the chance to prove themselves over a range of distances.
Restricting results to Group 1 races run in Britain, Ireland and France since 2000, the horse who has won over the greatest disparity of trips is Fame And Glory who won the Tattersalls Gold Cup over an extended mile and a quarter in 2010 and the Gold Cup over nearly twice that distance the following season. Yeats was another who was successful in races nearly a mile apart but narrowing the query even further to those who have who have spent most of their career competing at much shorter distances brings up very little.
The nearest modern equivalent to Alcohol Free is Goldikova who the Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs and the Prix d’Ispahan over an extended nine furlongs, though her fellow compatriots Moonlight Cloud (like Goldikova trained by Freddie Head) and Whipper both won the six-and-half furlong Maurice de Gheest as well as the Jacques Le Marois over a mile. Chief Singer ended up as something of a dud at stud, not entirely unsurprising given his humble origins, but Alcohol Free will no doubt be given the sort of opportunities that never came his way.
Alcohol Free’s 116 figure was the highest at the July meeting, followed next by Yibir’s 111 in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes on the opening day. Timefigures on the round course on Thursday weren’t easy to settle on relative to those on the straight course and Yibir’s timefigure, as well as Deauville Legend’s (91) in the Bahrain Trophy, is on the low side.
Final handicap winner Noble Dynasty looked an improved model on his first start since being gelded in posting a 106 and was the third winner on the card to make all the running following Lethal Levi (97) in the feature sprint handicap and Mighty Ulysses (100) in the Listed Sir Henry Cecil Stakes. The feature two-year-old race, the Close Brothers July Stakes, went the way of Coventry Stakes runner-up Persian Force who was left with a straightforward task once Little Big Bear was withdrawn and only needed to run a 99 timefigure, 3lb lower than in the Coventry, to see off once again several horses who had finished behind him at Ascot.
Friday’s topic of discussion might have been Inspiral’s defeat at 1/7 but it was a low-key day from a timefigure perspective with the best rating (106) coming from ‘Group horse in a handicap’ New London in the bet365 Handicap which he won in good style by three lengths from the progressive Swilcan Bridge.
Prosperous Voyage wasn’t far behind (105) when overturning Coronation Stakes form with Inspiral (who didn’t impress beforehand and probably left her race behind at Ascot) in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes, improving on her 1000 Guineas second timefigure of 103.
Mawj managed just a lowly 89 in getting the better of Lezoo in a tactical Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes, controlling the race from the front at an ordinary tempo and just doing enough, while Epictetus got the better of another son of Kingman, Leadman, in the opening maiden in an 89 timefigure that can be upgraded to 99 after Course Track sectionals are incorporated (hand-taken sectionals are near impossible on the July Course).
The best winning figure on the final day, other than the one recorded by Alcohol Free, came from Bless Him (102) in the Bet365 Bunbury Cup where the strong pace played right into his hands, accounting readily for a trio who’d been involved at the business end of the Buckingham Palace and the Wokingham.
The Bunbury Cup was one of four races over seven furlongs on the card with the best relative time (102) of the quartet posted by Miss Carol Ann in the fillies handicap. The Group 2 Superlative Stakes wasn’t strongly run with the winner Isaac Shelby (83) not even reproducing the figure he’d achieved on his debut at Newbury, but he looks a useful prospect along with the runner-up Victory Dance. I’d be fairly certain the weak-in-the-market Lion Of War, who won in good style at Newcastle, was unsuited by the very fast ground mindful of how he moved at Newcastle.
The fastest timefigure recorded last week away from Newmarket came from Flotus in the Group 3 William Hill Summer Stakes at York. Last seen finishing third to July Cup flop (albeit he wasn’t given the best ride) Perfect Power in the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot, Flotus posted a 103 back against her own sex in calmer waters at the Knavesmire which is her best this season for all it’s still some way behind the 110 she managed behind Tenebrism in the Cheveley Park last autumn.
Eilean Dubh (101) and Anmaat (100) might have been the ‘stars’ of Saturday’s John Smiths-sponsored meeting from a timefigure perspective, the latter particularly impressive on his first run since finishing second in last year’s Cambridgeshire, suggesting he’s a smart horse in the making, but the horse who stole the headlines was Royal Aclaim who went straight to the head of the betting for the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes after winning the listed City Walls Stakes by two lengths from Mondammej.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsReportedly the apple of her trainer's eye and described by renowned paddock judge Adam Norman on Twitter as an ‘absolute beaut’, Royal Aclaim didn’t quite win as cosily as the Twitterati were cooing about when I caught up with the race on Saturday evening and there was nothing impressive in her winning timefigure which was a lowly 69.
Royal Aclaim had none other than Perfect Power behind her in third when making a winning debut at Newcastle last year in a race which also contained the now 103-rated Fearby, and though her claims on form are hard to knock. she hasn’t done it on the clock just yet.
Flotus wasn’t the only horse last weekend who gave the form of last season’s Cheveley Park a boost as Tenebrism belatedly returned to that sort of level when winning the Group 1 Haras D’Etreham Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.
She was one of only three fillies in the 11-runner field and though they finished in a total heap behind her, the McLloyd sectionals suggest that she was the rightful winner, running the fastest last 600m as well as the fastest final 200m despite coming from off what wasn’t a strong pace.
Lusail’s third place after running the fifth-fastest last 600m rather confirms to me he was a bit flattered by his front-running ride in the St James’s Palace Stakes, while Modern Games ran as well as could have been expected dropping three furlongs in trip after his good French Derby effort. Tenebrism’s rider Ryan Moore made it a Group double on the day when winning the Prix de Ris-Orangis on Charles Hills’ Garrus. Sectionals over the last 600m suggest he too was the rightful winner and though he’s just below the top level at home, he clearly goes very well at this track in summer having won the Prix de Meautry here last year.
