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The Singapore-trained Zac Spirit heads a massive overseas contingent among a top-class 59-strong entry – including ten different individual Group or Grade 1 winners - for the Group 1 Darley July Cup, which will be run over a straight six furlongs on Saturday, 9th July.
No less than 23 foreign horses, from four different continents and representing almost 39 per cent of the entire entry, have been engaged in this £500,000 event, which is a leg of both the QIPCO British Champions Series and the Global Sprint Challenge.
Zac Spirit returned from an 11-month injury lay-off to land Singapore’s most prestigious sprint, the six furlong Group 1 Lion City Cup, for a second time at Kranji on 24th April. Trained by the 47-year-old Australian, Cliff Brown, he beat Emperor Max by a length with the rest of the field two and a half lengths or more further adrift.
He may become the first visitor from Singapore to take part in this 150-year-old sprint showpiece. It has been plundered by an intercontinental raider just once, 16 years ago, when the Japanese colt, Agnes World, carried off the trophy.
Zac Spirit is one of four non-European entries. The others are the Australian hope, Holler – a Group 1 scorer at Randwick in Sydney two months ago - and the American-trained pair of Undrafted and Mongolian Saturday.
Winner of the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last June, Undrafted has contested the Darley July Cup once before, finishing fourth on unsuitably soft ground in 2014. Mongolian Saturday is already proven at this top level too, having landed the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint back in October.
The European-based contenders also include an Australian Group 1 winner among their ranks in the shape of Vancouver, successful last year in the world’s richest two-year-old race, the Golden Slipper.
Vancouver is part of an eight-strong entry from the Irish Champion Trainer, Aidan O’Brien, alongside the European Champion Two-Year-Old of 2015, Air Force Blue.
Another intriguing Irish candidate is the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint hero of 2014, Bobby’s Kitten. Recently shipped across the Atlantic to join Dermot Weld’s yard, he made a startling reappearance when running away with a Listed event at Cork by more than eight lengths.
The home team is led by Henry Candy’s two crack four-year-olds – the Group 1 Betfred Sprint Cup winner, Twilight Son, and Limato, runner-up last term in both the Group 1 Prix de la Foret and the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup.
Other notable British entries are the three-year-old, Gifted Master – winner of his last five starts and already boasting a career bankroll of over £430,000 – and three contenders from last year’s winning trainer, Charlie Hills: Magical Memory, Strath Burn and Cotai Glory.
Cliff Brown, trainer of Zac Spirit, said:
“I am seriously considering sending Zac Spirit over to England to run in the Darley July Cup as there is not a lot for him in Singapore at this time of year and everything is fantastic with him at the moment – he’s better than ever.”
“I think that he would cope fine with the different conditions over there – we would make sure that we travelled him over plenty of time in advance. He’s always hanging tough at the end of seven furlong races here so the stiff straight six should suit him well.”
“He’s a lightly-raced horse who has had to recover from two surgeries. After his most recent operation he spent six months back in Australia [where he was bred] and that has really helped him both physically and mentally.”
“I am under no illusions that he would have to improve again (to make an impact) and I am a bit worried about where he might sit in the big international picture. But, if you take out the winner, Muhaarar, who was an out-and-out champion, Emperor Max was not far off the placed horses when he ran at Ascot [in the British Champions Sprint] last October, which gives us some cause for optimism.”
“I spent a year in Newmarket some 25 years ago, working for Chris Wall. I had a fantastic time and that has helped me develop a passion for some of the big races staged there.”
