Venetian Sun (3/1) is bidding to back up her impressive Commonwealth Cup win with further Group 1 success in the July Cup.
Victory this Saturday would make Karl Burke's filly just the third horse to complete the audacious Royal Ascot/Newmarket three-year-old sprint double after Muhaarar and Shaquille in 2015 & 2023 respectively.
Owned by a partnership involving Tony Bloom, there should be no surprise that connections made the shrewd decision to drop her back down to sprint trips after failing to stay the mile in the 1,000 Guineas.
With that Classic blunder well behind her, she looks the one to beat this weekend.
There are not one, but two fellow winners from this year's Royal meeting standing in her way, however.
Almeraq (9/2) and Mission Central (9/2) both sprung relative shocks when getting up to win at the Berkshire venue last month, but they are well found in the market here. The latter, handled by Aidan O'Brien, swerved a tilt at the Commonwealth Cup in favour of taking on his elders in the King Charles III Stakes and he was expertly delivered by Ryan Moore to land the spoils.
The William Haggas-trained Almeraq brings a slightly different profile to the race. He was promising as a three-year-old but a fall he suffered at York kept him off the track for the best part of a year before returning to win the Cathedral Stakes under Harry Davies.
Despite victory on his seasonal return, he was still sent off 25/1 in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes but got up late on to deny a wall of high-class horses.
One of these, Satono Reve (5/1), might be able to turn the form with his Royal Ascot conqueror.
Sick of being beat up by the world's best sprinter Ka Ying Rising, connections opted to return to Britain for the second time in his career where the chances of getting his head in front look considerably better.
Rattling quick ground on the July Course should be right up his street.
July Cup declarations
- Almeraq (Tom Marquand)
- Big Mojo (William Buick)
- Commanche Brave (Billy Loughnane)
- Double Rush (Oisin Murphy)
- Prince Of India (Pat Dobbs)
- Quinault (Marco Ghiani)
- Satono Reve (Chrstophe-Patrice Lemaire)
- Coppull (Saffie Osbourne)
- Division (James Doyle)
- Mission Central (Ryan Moore)
- Venetian Sun (Clifford Lee)
July Cup betting odds
(Odds will display when market is available)
Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.
