July Cup Comments

Here are some of the comments of the connections of the leading fancies for this weekends July Cup at Newmarket :
BATED BREATH - The plan is for him to run in the July Cup and were looking forward to seeing how he gets on. Weve always liked him and I was delighted with his victories at Haydock and Windsor earlier in the season. I thought he ran well in the Golden Jubilee last time out at Royal Ascot even though the ground was against him. He's a young horse who is still improving and is in good form at home. Weve yet to finalise riding plans but I'd imagine Steve Drowne will be back on board after missing Ascot due to injury.
DALGHAR - He's high class and definitely got a big race in him. You can put a line through his last run at Ascot because he was drawn on the wrong side. Before that he travelled best of all at York, but it was his reappearance and he needed it. He's fit now and I'd love to see him on faster ground.
DELEGATOR - He won nicely at York and he came back really well, in good condition, sound and healthy from that race. He worked five days ago over six furlongs on the Limekilns Short gallop at Newmarket and he was impressive when going away from his lead horse on grass - that gave me a good feeling. Today he had his last piece of work before the Darley July Cup, a three furlong blow-out on our Snailwell gallops on grass.I'm happy with Delegator and so far he is doing really well - he missed Royal Ascot because the ground was too soft for him. I think we will get better ground at Newmarket on Saturday - good to firm would be ideal for him. Six furlongs is probably going to be the best trip for him. He was second in the 2,000 Guineas two years ago but his work in the morning shows that he is more of a sprinter than a miler. He came from behind to win at York over six furlongs last time and he remains at that distance on Saturday. We will keep our options open for the future. It will not be easy to win a Group 1 - you need everything to go right in a six furlong race - but he is doing really well. Ideally, I would like him to sit just off the pace and thencome through because he has a good turn of foot.
GENKI - He has been a very good horse for us over the years and has raised his game again this season. He won a Stewards Cup for us in 2009 off a mark of 96 and is now rated 110 having won the Listed Abernant and the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes at Newcastle this season. We intend running him in the July Cup and he needs to improve again. I thought he ran respectably in the Golden Jubilee but the ground was a slight issue and he didnt get much cover. He's come out of his last race well and appears to be in good form at home.
STAR WITNESS - An Australian-trained horse has never won the July Cup, so we're going in there very aware it has been a bridge too far for the Australians in the past, but naturally it's a challenge and we'd like to be the first to win it. Actually, he's every bit as good as he was on Jubilee day. That (King's Stand) was part of his preparation for the Jubilee and obviously we were still hoping to win that, but he came out of the King's Stand in great order and ran very well on the Saturday without conditions really being in his favour. He's had three weeks since and really enjoyed the environment. He certainly hasn't gone backwards.

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WAR ARTIST - He will run in Newmarket, that is the plan. He was fifth at Royal Ascot and that was a good run. He had a long break after Dubai in March; that’s a long time to the King’s Stand Stakes, so he did well. We hope that he can win the Darley July Cup but he is eight years old. We are hoping for fast ground; we don’t want any soft ground, so no rain between now and Saturday would be perfect. Mr Plersch sent the horse to me in April and I have been very happy with him. He will be my first runner at Newmarket and we are hopeful that he will run very well.
WINKER WATSON - He seems to have come out of that race nicely. He’s very fresh and well so I’m hoping he will be spot on for Saturday. He’s done it on the track before but he has to do it again now.
He may have been off to stud but I haven’t trained him any differently, I only know one way to train them. Peter Chapple-Hyam had him before and they all seemed to love him there. He’s such a smashing horse to deal with; great temperament and just a great horse to have around. He has got to step up again but he’ll strip fitter, that’s for sure. He would certainly have been a Group One horse as a two-year-old, so why not now? He’s as good as we could possibly have him and I’m hoping he will be good enough to win, but we will take whatever comes along. Some people complained that he didn’t look right in his back but we have never had a problem with him, he’s never been lame while we have had him and we will get on and train him. He’s a racehorse and we will try to win races with him.
DREAM AHEAD - Hopefully we'll get a continued spell of rain so he can run in the July Cup, which was always his preferred target. The long-term plan is still to run him in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville on August.
ELZAAM - He will have to please me next week if he is to run in the July Cup. He had quite a hard race at Royal Ascot and I would say he's only a possible at this moment in time.

On another note -
Just to let you know in advance I will once again be producing a Master List of Sprinters to follow at the end of this flat season, however by way of a change it will not be posted for free on the blog.
If anyone is interested in receiving a copy then just let me know your email address in the comments box below or email me at andytdykes@gmail.com and if I get enough responses to this post I will email you the details of how you can get a hold of copy in December/January.