July Stakes Guide

1. Classy Moon

T - Karl Burke

J - Clifford Lee

Costing his owners £220,000, this two-year-old will need to dramatically raise his game from his maiden victory at Carlisle last time out.

Fumbled out of the stalls but still ran on to come out a convincing winner, a few of these have already gone to prove at Class One level which he will be out to do here.

Could be something special, but best to keep investments in the pocket for now.

2. Dogged

T - David Elsworth

J - Gerald Mosse

Unraced 60,000gns purchase for the trainer who also owns the horse, and is closely-related to four winners.

Thrown straight in the deep end here on debut, and hard to really provide a case for given what he is up against.

Interesting to see how he handles it and shapes on first appearance.

3. Guildsman

T - Archie Watson

J - Oisin Murphy

Represents the best form and standard after his excellent third in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Won very smartly at Goodwood on his debut when scoring by six lengths despite giving away sufficient ground at the start.

Archie Watson has a stunning record with horses this age, and looks to have a top individual on his hands.

4. Hurstwood

T - Tim Easterby

J - David Allan

Has won on his last two starts and appears to be going in the right direction now.

Third on debut at Ripon, and second at Carlisle a month later, he scored readily at York and at Pontefract latest - all efforts on varying sort of ground.

Huge jump in class now, and further improvement required here.

5. King Neptune

T - Aidan O'Brien

J - Ryan Moore

Fair sixth in the Norfolk Stakes behind A'Ali when all horses appeared to be jostling for room with a couple of furlongs to go.

Finished second to Siskin on his third appearance in a Listed race at the Curragh, and this sort of grade may ask too much of him.

Others probably faster than him.

6. Platinum Star

T - Saeed bin Suroor

J - Harry Bentley

Saeed bin Suroor does not always get the best Godolphin recruits nowadays, but could have a potential star on his hands going forward.

Platinum Star went close in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot, just being denied by Southern Hills in the Listed event over five.

Has winning form over six furlongs when scoring at Leicester the start before, so should certainly enter calculations here.

7. Royal Lytham

T - Aidan O'Brien

J - Wayne Lordan

Made eyecatching headway when running on in the Coventry at Royal Ascot in the closing stages, and was not done any favours when hampered by beaten horses going backwards.

Should be closer to the pace today, and won his maiden in nice style at Navan back at the beginning of June.

Latecomer; may have not got near Guildsman at Ascot, but cannot be ruled out of a better effort here.

8. Visinari

T - Mark Johnston

J - Frankie Dettori

Coming out of stall one is Visinari, who was an impressive winner of a course and distance novice event on last month's racecourse debut.

This grey son of Dark Angel looks a highly growing prospect going forward, and represents a lethal partnership of Mark Johnston and Frankie Dettori.

Very hard to oppose on that basis.