Timeform highlight the best July Cup winners since the turn of the century, based on the performance rating they achieved at Newmarket.
Mozart (Timeform Rating 131) - 2001
Two years after Aidan O’Brien won his first July Cup with the top-class Stravinsky, he won it again with another three-year-old named after a composer who was almost as good. Like Stravinsky, Mozart began the season over longer trips. He was second in the Irish 2000 Guineas before winning the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot – there was no Commonwealth Cup for three-year-old sprinters in those days – which meant Mozart had his first taste of sprinting in the July Cup, having raced only over seven furlongs at two.
Sent off the 4/1 favourite under Michael Kinane in a field of 18, that number was effectively reduced by seven when a group elected to race towards the disadvantaged far side. Mozart, however, proved to be ideally drawn as the first four home came from the four highest-numbered stalls. But there was no mistaking Mozart’s performance as being that of a top-class sprinter. Soon at the head of affairs, he quickly left a clutch of very smart performers in his wake when asked to quicken approaching the final two furlongs and powered away to win by three and a half lengths from the King’s Stand winner Cassandra Go.
Oasis Dream (128) - 2003
The 2003 July Cup revolved around Australian challenger Choisir and a pair of three-year-olds he had beaten in completing his sprint double at Royal Ascot; the filly Airwave who’d finished second to him in the Golden Jubilee Stakes and the colt Oasis Dream, the previous season’s leading two-year-old who’d been making a delayed reappearance when third in the King’s Stand. The three of them dominated the betting – the remainder started at 14/1 or bigger - with Choisir sent off favourite to win again.
But Oasis Dream had clearly benefited from his return to action at Ascot and improved enough to turn the tables. He wasn’t the best away from the stalls but soon recovered to race on the heels of Choisir who set a sound pace from his low draw. Moving up to challenge from two furlongs out, Oasis Dream was made to fight as Choisir was in no mood to give up his lead but he responded to pressure to get on top in the closing stages and win by a length and a half, providing his jockey Richard Hughes with his first Group 1 success in Britain. Airwave was clear of the rest in third, a neck behind the runner-up.
Sakhee’s Secret (128) - 2007
Sakhee’s Secret was another improving three-year-old to land the July Cup when successful for Hughie Morrison and Steve Drowne in 2007. He hadn’t taken the usual route via Royal Ascot but had won all three of his starts earlier in the season, notably a listed contest at Salisbury which he won by four lengths, a high-class effort which he was to repeat at Newmarket. It was the Golden Jubilee third Asset who shaded Sakhee’s Secret for favouritism in the absence of the winner of that race Soldier’s Tale, because of the firmer ground, and the runner-up Takeover Target, who, like the King’s Stand winner Miss Andretti, had returned home to Australia by then.
Sakhee’s Secret, who looked in outstanding shape beforehand, travelled well and, after briefly having to wait for a run two furlongs out, he produced an impressive turn of foot to strike the front before tending to hang left inside the final furlong. Fellow three-year-old Dutch Art, back sprinting for the first time since winning the previous season’s Middle Park, put up a high-class effort of his own in finishing well to be beaten half a length in second, though might have gone closer still had he not been squeezed out in some scrimmaging towards the rear at around halfway.
Starspangledbanner (128) - 2010
Choisir might have missed out on a July Cup victory with Johnny Murtagh in 2003 but seven years later his son Starspangledbanner had better luck for the same jockey. Bred in Australia where he began his career, Starspangledbanner won the Golden Jubilee Stakes on just his second start for Aidan O’Brien and was sent off the 2/1 favourite to follow up in the July Cup against no fewer than ten he’d beaten at Ascot. He duly cemented his position as the top sprinter in Europe with another high-class effort.
Quickly away again, Murtagh was keen to grab the far rail in the July Cup but caused interference to several on his inside as he did so which resulted in the jockey picking up a six-day ban for careless riding. But a prominent pitch proved essential as those further back proved unable to land a blow on the pace-setters. While Starspangledbanner headed the main pack, King’s Stand winner Equiano led a trio down the middle of the track and it was the latter, who had the overall lead, who proved Starspangledbanner’s biggest threat. Surging up the hill, though, Starspangledbanner took overall control in the last 100 yards for a neck victory.
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Lethal Force (128) - 2013
Three years after Starspangledbanner, the Clive Cox-trained Lethal Force become another to complete what was by then the Diamond Jubilee-July Cup double. More than that, he was the first sprinter since Starspangledbanner to string together two Group 1 victories. Lethal Force was an improved four-year-old who had spent much of his three-year-old season over seven furlongs but the Diamond Jubilee first revealed him to be a high-class sprinter and his July Cup performance very much confirmed it.
A field of 11, after Krypton Factor had broken out of the stalls and been withdrawn, made it one of the smallest July Cup fields this century but with Lethal Force one of five Group 1 winners in the line-up, including the recent King’s Stand winner Sole Power, it was far from lacking in quality. Conditions were quick, too, and with Lethal Force getting a flyer from the stalls and blazing a trail under Adam Kirby on the stands side, he put up a performance which lowered the track record. Going with zest until shaken up two furlongs out, Lethal Force ran on well to win unchallenged by a length and a half from Society Rock who’d also chased him home at Ascot.
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