Newmarket provides home comforts as July Course clicks into gear

Listed wins for Star Of Mystery and Kemari on Saturday underlined Godolphin’s excellent record at Newmarket’s July Course, with the track’s flagship July Festival around the corner.

Since the start of 2022, nine horses trained by Charlie Appleby and Saeed bin Suroor have graduated to G1 honours, yielding 15 top-level wins in total. Eight of those horses had previously run on the July Course, with the only exception Nations Pride winning a Listed race on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile.

Juvenile filly Star Of Mystery could well add to that tally, with the half-sister to Mysterious Night and Althiqa handed the long-term target of the Cheveley Park Stakes following an easy success in the Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Stakes.

Kemari had chased home Rebel’s Romance in the Fred Archer Stakes 12 months ago and the son of Dubawi gamely took this year’s renewal. New London shaped encouragingly in third on his first outing since last year’s St Leger and could now head to Goodwood for the G3 Glorious Stakes – a race also won by Rebel’s Romance in 2022.

Dance Sequence scored on the same Newmarket card, adding to the recent course victories of fellow two-year-olds Dazzling Star and Ancient Wisdom alongside unexposed three-year-old Imperial Emperor.

In North America, Wadsworth secured a first Stakes win on his second turf appearance as he captured the American Derby at Ellis Park on Saturday. Renosu also collected a breakthrough Listed success in Australia on the same day in Flemington’s A R Creswisk Stakes.

Safecracker could bid to emulate Trawlerman with victory in the Ebor at York after scoring in a heritage handicap on Irish Derby Day, while two-year-old colt Nasty Weather looks set for a bright future after winning by four lengths on debut at Hakodate in Japan.

Silver Knott, third in the G2 Pennine Ridge Stakes in early June, will be hoping for another strong performance in New York this Saturday when he bids for G1 honours in the Belmont Derby.