Best bets for the horse racing Thursday 8th July

Following a slow start to the week with no bets for me it really heats up now with plenty to get involved with on the July Course at Newmarket for the Moët & Chandon July Festival staring on Thursday.  

Best bets for day one of the Moët & Chandon July Festival at Newmarket  

It’s Ladies Day apparently on Thursday and ‘the hottest ticket of the summer’ according to the marketing guys; I aint sure about that but good luck to them they have a job to do. More importantly there are some good horses running that you should be backing.  

The opener at 1.20 the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes is worth a watch with some potentially nice two-year-olds lining-up but I won't be betting on it.  

It's the Group Three Bahrain Trophy Stakes over 1m5f at 1.50 Charlie Appleby is represented by Yibir, second to subsequent Irish Derby runner-up Lone Eagle last time out having not beaten far by stablemate and subsequent Derby winner Adayar before that at Sandown, you can’t knock his form! The chestnut gelding deserves to win a race and has the ability to take one such as this. I am on at 11-4 overnight. Stowell is the lightly raced potential improver but I think his third in the G.2 Queens Vase might flatter him.  

Second in the G.1 Coronation Cup last time at Epsom the Group Two Princess Of Wales's Tattersalls Stakes at 3.35 over 1m4f looks to be all about Al Aasy but the four-year-old is priced accordingly. Reportedly the Shadwell-owned colt runs here ahead of a possible crack at the King George And Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes at Ascot. I wouldn't put you off backing him but I aint going to at the price. Star Safari, trained by Charlie Appleby, has his first outing since finishing a respectable sixth in the Dubai Sheema Classic but looks up against it in his first start in the UK since 2018. My old mate Bangkok will run his race, the first go over this far in two-years, but also looks a to be running for a place.  

At 4.10 they face a mile for the Listed Edmondson Hall Solicitors Sir Henry Cecil Stakes. Dirty Dozen member One Ruler drops back down in trip and significantly in class having run sixth in the G.1 mile 2,000 Guineas (tipped on here) and G.1 Derby over 1m4f before seventh in the G.3 Hampton Court Stakes over 1m2f at Royal Ascot. I still think a mile to a mile-and-a-quarter is his game and wouldn’t be surprised if James Doyle tried to make this a bit of a test on him. I have to back him and have done at 7-1 overnight with Hills. Maximal was fourth in the St James's Palace last time and will be popular, his second to Hurricane Lane in the Dubai Duty Free also reads well now, but I am sticking with One Ruler.  

Be lucky