UK today -Fillies day at July Festival

The big July meeting from Newmarket starts today and a great looking card it is with quite a few decent looking bets.

The main event is the grp1 Falmouth over a mile were Rainbow view looks to have another chance to recapture her winning ways from last year.Her main rival looks to be Goldikova who herself disapointed first time out,but if shes is back to her best from last year when she won the Breeders cup Mile she will be hard to beat.

The Grp2 cherry Hinton looks to be an opportunity for Habaayib,the Ed Dunlop trained 2yo won the very hot looking Albany at Royal Ascot beeting the much hyped pair of Lillie langtry from Ireland and Aegean from the Ward yard.The race today looks a far easier race and the 15/10 available looks a decent bet.

The opening race also for fillies looks a very tricky affair were Foundation Room can run into a place if she can find her form from last season where she went close in a big sales race and the 16/1 looks tempting..

Will have to stick with Rainbow View.

Goldikova bids to be crowned Festival queen


WEDNESDAY at the Champagne Lanson July festival is all about the girls, and if one girl in particular is as good as she was at Santa Anita last November, Ladies' Day at Newmarket will be dominated by Goldikova.

Were it not for her deeply disappointing seasonal reappearance, last year's outstanding Breeders' Cup Mile heroine would have the look of a good thing in the£200,000 Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes.

Yet while a below-par performance in the Prix d'Ispahan will dissuade some from supporting the French challenger, her admiring trainer Freddie Head has lost not one iota of faith.

"I am very confident. On form she looks to be the best horse, so I expect her to win and win well," said the trainer, whose Newmarket raider stands head and shoulders above the Falmouth opposition judged onher 2008 Group 1 hat-trick.

Heading up that opposition is last season's champion two-year-old filly Rainbow View, for whom recent rain at Newmarket can only have been beneficial.

Joining her at the forefront of the home team's defence will be the Cheveley Park Stud's Spacious and Heaven Sent, first and second last time out in the Windsor Forest Stakes.

Royal Ascot-winning form is also brought to the table in the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cherry Hinton Stakes, in which the Ed Dunlop-trained Albany Stakes winner Habaayib faces Misheer, Ceedwell and Capercaillie, the second, third and fourth from the Queen Mary Stakes.

"We may well be a short-priced favourite, but I am far from thinking it is going to be a breeze," said Dunlop, whose contender faces a total of nine rivals in the Group 2 contest.

Dascombe aiming for more July Stakes joy


TOM DASCOMBE will attempt to become the first trainer since David Loder completed a hat-trick of victories in the TNT July Stakes at the turn of the century to complete back-to-back wins in the Group 2 race.


Twelve months ago, Dascombe was successful with Classic Blade, who had won two of his three races, and this time round he saddles Orpen Grey, who has also won two of his three starts, including the same Salisbury conditions race Classic Blade took last time.

Dascombe said: "He had an educational run first time out at Goodwood, where he wasn't really ready and finished fifth of nine. He then showed a lot of improvement to win his maiden at Warwick. On his third start, at Salisbury, he won by eight lengths eased down, but I don't think it was much of a race andwe shouldn't get too excited about it.

"He's a lovely horse with a great attitude, very laid back. He looks well drawn (three) down the far side. Fingers crossed we are hoping for a big run. The only concern I've got is what the ground is going to be like. He wouldn't want soft ground and that's the only thing that worries me. I just hope it doesn't get much softer."

The Norfolk Stakes has been a rich source of winners of this race recently, with Winker Watson two years ago, Strategic Prince in 2006, and Nevisian Lad in 2003 having all come here after either winning or making the frame at Ascot, and that Group 2 5f dash could prove key to this once again.

Reignier (second), Tawaabb (third), Nosedive (fourth) and Diamond Johnny G (sixth) all reoppose once again over this furlong-longer trip.