The July Cup

Galileo said:
They had 15mm yesterday, and 12 more forecast for tomorrow. The ground is currently "good". The word soft will surely appear in the going then for the July Cup which must mean Marchand D'Or will go off favourite.
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I'm not sure that the rain is going to get in much - it's been very dry here until the last 24 hours - and we are not forecast much after today, so I'd be cautious in predicting the going for Friday yet
 
Update from Paul Ostermeyer from TRF who is at the course :

The official going is still Good, we seem to have escaped the worse of the rain so far.

It is currently dry and the rain began at 8:00 this morning. By 11:30 there had been 1.6mm.

It has certainly rained a lot lighter here than it was when I was driving to the course.

There are some nasty grey clouds in the area though.
 
With the prevailing ground conditions, it's hard to look beyond Marchand D'Or who seems to have everything going for him.

Kingsgate Native is probably better suited by fast ground, as is Benbaun who may be coming back to form.

If there's to be a real upset, Prime Defender might be the one after his run last weekend, his best effort for some time. A fine physical specimen, he probably handles an easyish surface well enough.

Won't be having a bet, though!
 
Marchand Dor may well sluice up but whilst stats can be misleading how about this one to curb unbridled enthusiasm.

If it is acknowledged that MdO prefers ground that is not firm the horse's record over 6 furlongs when conditions do not include the F word are as follows: (latest first).

Going. Placing.
Good 6th
Good/Soft 6th
Good 7th

(E&OA)

Looking at this will anyone give me 66/1 that horse number 6 comes 6th to £6.

Small sample but makes one think.
 
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Wonder if O'Brien is wishing he'd have done a Stravinsky and put headgear on the runner-up. He;d have won that race if he had.
 
Runner up has no excuses; he had the run of the race.

Look where Marchand D'Or came from.

Think Astronomer Royal may have a hand in the Haydock Sprint Cup, and could have been ridden closer.
 
I'm not making excuses for him as such, but if you watch the race again, you'll see that he again raced lazily and spent most of the second half of the race with his head in the air. I can't believe he wouldn't be more amenable in headgear. I do suspect the stiff finish played to his strengths today though and think that could have been his best chance of a Group 1 win at 6f.
 
That was either the best or luckiest ride (tactically) of the season by Bonilla. I'm strongly favouring the former.
 
I don't think it was a particularly good ride; he was the on the best horse and only just got there. Should have made it more authoritative.
 
Best horse, but not by much and he's not straighforward. Needs cover, needs to be delievered late, and the jockey not only managed to pull him off the pace, but was also able to switch him all the way out to the stands rails, leaving him with a wide open space to attack, rather than get stuck in the middle of a pitched battle up the centre. Was the ground a little faster this side too? Missed the Bunbury so not sure if there was any evidence of it in that.
 
Bonilla had god in his side

I think Marchand Dor won despite jockeys ride.


not the greatest of the editions , I have the feeling once Fleeting spirit is ok, she will beat this bunch with ease.
 
Hoping people will forget the badly hampered and staying on Diabolical for the next big sprint race so 10/1 a place will be available again.

Showed up well for a few furlongs at Ascot and wasn´t beaten far today, will be three or four times the price of those around him today for the Sprint Cup and should go close

Great ride from Bonilla :)
 
Hard to call US Ranger ungenuine after that. Carries his head high (but some horses do) but ran all the way to the line. Possible he could be kept in training next year I would have thought. Both should be leading players in the Sprint Cup where easy ground will hold no fear for either of them.
 
surley Jim McGrath is right, time for a pair of blinkers for US Ranger. APOB has used them to good effect in the past on his sprinters and he looks in need of them
 
Galileo

It makes it all the more easy to call him ungenuine after that. The fact that he kept going forwards owed only to the persistence of his rider than any willingness of behalf of the horse. There's no reason why he shouldn;t have been able to go the gallop and pick up the bridle other than his unwillingness to do so. I agree that some horses carry their heads high, 9 times out of 10 because they aren't putting it all in.
 
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