Big Orange’s bid to repeat last year’s victory in the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club Stakes is just one of the highlights of a fabulous opening day of the three-day Moët & Chandon July Festival at Newmarket’s Adnams July Course on Thursday, 7th July.
Over half of the seven-strong field for the Princess of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club Stakes, a £100,000 event run over a mile and a half, are already winners at or above Group 2 level and the race is a rematch between the first two home from 12 months ago – Big Orange and Second Step.
Big Orange, who will be ridden for the first time by the New Zealander, James McDonald, went on to win the Group 2 Goodwood Cup, finish a close fifth in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in Australia and begin 2016 with a narrow reverse in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup in Dubai. Second Step was similarly successful overseas, plundering the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin in Germany.
Top rated of their five opponents is The Grey Gatsby, winless despite having run numerous big races since landing a famous triumph in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes in September 2014. He will be trying this trip for the first time since getting bogged down by the Longchamp mud in the Grand Prix de Paris two years ago.
Sir Michael Stoute will be bidding to land this prize for a remarkable tenth time when he saddles Exosphere. The mount of Ryan Moore, Exosphere should go close if repeating the form that saw him earn a 3lb weight penalty when running away with the Group 2 Dunaden At Overbury Jockey Club Stakes on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile back in April.
The line-up is completed by Elite Army, narrowly denied in last month’s Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes when going for a second Royal Ascot success; Battersea, absent since making a promising Pattern Race debut in the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy in Dubai back in early March; and a solitary three-year-old, Muntazah, fourth in the Group 2 Dante Stakes on his latest start.
A sparkling Day One of the Moët & Chandon July Festival features a second Group 2 affair in the form of the £80,000 Arqana July Stakes, a six furlong juvenile contest.
A superb field of ten includes a number of colts who performed admirably at Royal Ascot including the unbeaten Windsor Castle Stakes winner, Ardad; the Coventry Stakes runner-up, Mehmas; and the Norfolk Stakes third, Silver Line.
The regular racing action gets under way at 2.10pm with a classy field of nine three-year-olds - most notably the Tercentenary Stakes second, Prize Money - going to post for the Group 3 £100,000 Bahrain Trophy over one mile and five furlongs.
And the quality runs right through until 5.30pm when an exceptional 11-runner renewal of the Listed £40,000 Plusvital Sir Henry Cecil Stakes over a mile features the comeback of last year’s Group 1 Connolly’s RED MILLS Cheveley Park Stakes heroine, Lumiere, following her last-place finish in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.
Michael Bell, trainer of Big Orange, said:
“Big Orange is a bigger and stronger horse than in 2015 and the recent dry weather means that the ground is finally coming in his favour.”
“Last year’s win was a nice surprise, especially since his owner, Mr Gredley, bred him just three miles away from the July Course.”
“We are well aware that he is better over further and he is unlikely to get his own way out in front again – last year the rest of the field possibly didn’t treat him with respect because he was a 25-1 chance.”
“He has not run since April simply because of the soft ground. He was being prepared for the Ascot Gold Cup but when it went ‘good to soft’ I had to pull him out.”
“He’s a very easy horse to train because he is so clean-winded and runs well fresh. He’s in very good shape and acts well on the course but The Grey Gatsby is rated eight pounds higher than him, albeit he is not proven over a mile and a half.”
“I would like to have had Jamie [Spencer] riding him again but he’s had a difficult decision to make and if The Grey Gatsby stays then he’s probably made the right one.”
“However, James McDonald is a top class international rider. He came to ride Big Orange out this morning and was very happy with him.”
