Trainer Roger Varian has issued an upbeat bulletin about Barsanti prior to his appearance in the eight-runner Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club Stakes, one of numerous highlights on the first day of the three-day Moët & Chandon July Festival at Newmarket’s Adnams July Course on Thursday (12th July).
A £100,000 mile and a half event, the Princess Of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club Stakes has produced a number of top class winners over the last few years, including Big Orange on two occasions, and, way back in 1989, was used as a stepping stone to Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe glory for Carroll House by Varian’s training mentor, Michael Jarvis.
Barsanti has been exceptionally consistent since joining Varian two and half years ago, not finishing out of the first three in 11 consecutive starts before finishing fourth in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
He began his 2018 campaign with a hard-fought neck victory over Mirage Dancer in the Listed Buckhounds Stakes at Ascot and that old rival will be in opposition again on Thursday.
Other leading contenders are the Group 3 winners, Algometer and Muntahaa; Laraaib, second to Poet’s Word in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes; and the three-year-old, Raa Atoll, fresh from his fourth place in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes.
The opening day of the Moët & Chandon July Festival is stacked full of quality as there are three other stakes races not to mention the 20-runner bet365 Handicap Stakes, a £100,000 six furlong event for three-year-olds.
The £80,000 Arqana July Stakes is a prestigious Group 2 event for juveniles run over six furlongs. It has attracted eight runners including Advertise, runner-up in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, and Van Beethoven, who must carry a 3lb penalty for his recent Group 2 Railway Stakes success.
The most valuable race on the card is the one mile and five furlong Group 3 Bahrain Trophy, which has had its prize money increased by 50 per cent from last year to reach the £150,000 mark.
It has an intriguing eight-runner field featuring two classy Aidan O’Brien trainees – Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victory Salute – and First Eleven, a Frankel half-brother to Kingman who finished an unlucky third in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot and represents the powerful John Gosden/Frankie Dettori trainer/jockey combination.
The Listed £50,000 Edmondson Hall Solicitors Sir Henry Cecil Stakes over one mile has a number of potentially top class three-year-olds among its 12 declared runners, most notably Gabr, denied a clear run when sixth in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes on his latest outing.
Roger Varian, trainer of Barsanti, said:
“Barsanti has come out of his run in the Hardwicke Stakes in good shape – he looks well and is training well.”
“Nothing has come to light to explain his performance in the Hardwicke, where he was right there turning for home but did not finish off the race as we would have liked. Even so, he was not beaten very far.”
“I can’t see any reason why the July Course will be a problem and the combination of a mile and a half and fast ground ought to suit him pretty well.”
“It looks a warm renewal of the Princess Of Wales’s Arqana Racing Club Stakes - it’s a competitive race. Barsanti put up a strong performance when just beating Mirage Dancer at Ascot in May and a repeat of that would see him right in the mix on Thursday.”
