Shea Shea favourite for a top class Darley July Cup

Shea Shea at Royal Ascot where he went down by a neck to Sole Power in the King’s Stand Stakes. Image courtesy of racingfotos.com.

With seven individual Group 1 winners standing their ground and four inter-continental challengers, Saturday’s Darley July Cup is shaping up to be one of the highest class and most international renewals ever.

The joint richest Group 1 sprint run in Europe (alongside Royal Ascot’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes) has £500,000 in prize money on offer for the centrepiece of the three-day Piper-Heidsieck July Festival on Newmarket’s July Course.

The most inter-continental challengers that the race had in the past was three in 2004, 2009 and 2010.

This year Shamexpress from Australia, Havelock from the USA, Shea Shea from South Africa and Krypton Factor from Bahrain are all set to run in the third and final British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.

The individual Group 1 winners amongst the 15 horses that have been confirmed today for the fourth sprint in the QIPCO British Champions Series are Krypton Factor, Lethal Force, Reckless Abandon, Shamexpress, Shea Shea, Society Rock and Sole Power.

Mike de Kock is upbeat about the prospects of Shea Shea, ante-post favourite for the race, giving him a first European Group 1 victory in Saturday’s six furlong showpiece.

He reports: "Shea Shea has done a fair bit more work since he was beaten by Sole Power at Royal Ascot which will definitely help him.

"At Ascot he had only been in proper work for five weeks following a month of quarantine. He still did everything but win and was only beaten by a very good horse.”

Although he has won in South Africa over as far as seven furlongs, the two most recent of Shea Shea’s three career Group 1 triumphs have been over the minimum distance of five furlongs.

"Shea Shea’s best and classiest form has been over five furlongs,” de Kock admits, "but we have come a long way and we might as well have a go. You never know until you try.”

He has been stabling horses in Newmarket while contesting some of Europe’s top races with the cream of South Africa’s bloodstock for some ten years and reveals.

"We love Newmarket, it feels like a home track for us.

"For South African racing and breeding and for myself, to be competitive in a race like the July Cup means a lot. To win it would be something special.”

De Kock has just come from Durban, where the ‘other’ July meeting took place at Greyville last Saturday, highlighted by South Africa’s top race, the Vodacom July, an event de Kock has won four times in the past.

Asked which of the two he would prefer to win, de Kock replies: "The big meetings all around the world are great occasions, each is unique in its own way and special to attend. But in terms of exposure and international competition the July Cup is on another level so, if given the choice, I would take the Newmarket race.”

Tickets and admission: Advance purchasers of tickets in the Premier and Grandstand & Paddock Enclosures receive at least 10 per cent off the on-the-day prices which are: Premier £40; Grandstand&Paddock £23; Family £10 (no discounts). Accompanied under 18s are admitted free of charge.

First race-time is 2.05pm on Saturday. Telephone: 0844 579 3010 Online: newmarketracecourses.co.uk