Newmarket July Festival Thursday Tips – Irish NH Tips
This horse failed to win a two-year-old maiden in three attempts last season which would be rare enough for Aidan O'Brien, but he made no mistake on the first run of his three-year-old season when he ran out a convincing winner at Navan over ten furlongs. He seemed to take the step up in grade and trip in his stride last time, when beaten just a length and a half in the Group 2 Queens Vase at Royal Ascot last month.
With that experience under his belt, and a slight drop in grade here I make him very difficult to beat, and he rates a very strong bet.
This horse was a maiden winner over seven furlongs and has taken the step up to a mile in his stride. He was just touched off in a novice at Thirsk where he gave weight to a horse now rated four pounds higher than him on official ratings.
He ran a stormer last time in the Britannia at Royal Ascot where having been held up in rear of a thirty-runner field, he was making a lot of progress before running into traffic problems. He was a fair bit closer than the four- and three-quarter length defeat suggests and a reproduction of that run in calmer waters here should see him hard to beat.
This horse has been highly tried since his maiden win, and he has run with credit on almost all of his starts in Group 1 and Group 2 level. This season may not have gone to plan so far but the drop in class last time at Royal Ascot was a definite step in the right direction and, as a horse that has gone well at this meeting last season, I hope the return here can spark him back to life.
He has a lot of class in comparison to some of his rivals, and Hugo Palmer is well capable of training one for the big day. He will be a big price and hopefully he can put his best foot forward. If he does, he will be in the mix at the business end and hopefully he can scoop the lot.
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