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Horse Racing Analysis | Trainers in form heading into August
John Ingles highlights the trainers whose strings have been in particularly good form throughout the last month.
*Trainers with at least 30 runners in July
CHARLIE APPLEBY
- Winners and runners in Britain and Ireland in July: 21/64
- Strike rate in July: 32.8%
- Timeform run-to-form percentage in July: 71.9%
Charlie Appleby struck with around one in three of the runners he saddled in July which was a good reflection of the stable’s excellent run-to-form percentage. Appleby ended the month as the leading trainer at Goodwood where he had five winners (and three seconds) at the meeting, including New London in the Gordon Stakes and Rebel’s Romance who beat stablemate Kemari in the Glorious Stakes, while Secret State and Warren Point won good three-year-old handicaps.
St Leger hope New London was also one of the stable’s three winners at Newmarket’s July meeting earlier in the month where Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Yibir returned to winning form in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes. Ascot listed winner Naval Power, now unbeaten in three starts, looked one of the best two-year-olds seen out so far, while Newmarket winners Noble Style, winner of both his outings, and Highbank, who made an impressive debut, also look exciting two-year-old colts for Godolphin in the coming months.
HARRY & ROGER CHARLTON
- Winners and runners in Britain and Ireland in July: 8/30
- Strike rate in July: 26.7%
- Timeform run-to-form percentage in July: 66.7%
The Charlton string hit form in July, with the second half of the month proving especially fruitful when they had six of their eight winners. The highlight was provided by three-year-old filly Jumbly who won the Group 3 Valiant Stakes on King George day at Ascot. Earlier in the month, Sinjaari won a valuable mile handicap at Sandown and his subsequent defeat under a penalty in the Golden Mile at Goodwood can be ignored after not getting a clear run.
Persian Royal completed a double during the month at Doncaster and Sandown, while another three-year-old to have won her last couple of starts is Newmarket winner Ashky who was following up a course-and-distance success in June.
The stable also introduced the speedily-bred two-year-old Batal Dubai who was given a ‘large P’ for a very promising debut at Haydock where he looked a useful sprinter in the making in winning by three and a half lengths from a colt who went on to finish second in a valuable maiden at Goodwood. He was found out under a penalty in another novice at Salisbury a fortnight later but remains capable of better.
SIR MARK PRESCOTT
- Winners and runners in Britain and Ireland in July: 9/33
- Strike rate in July: 27.3%
- Timeform run-to-form percentage in July: 66.7%
Sir Mark Prescott’s stable doesn’t usually find its stride until the summer and that’s been the case again this year. In fact, Prescott’s nine domestic winners in July compared with just six in the whole of the first half of the year. Highlight of the month came early on in France where very smart mare Alpinista made a winning reappearance in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud to extend her winning sequence to six races. She’s entered in the Yorkshire Oaks this month in which she finished runner-up to Love two years ago.
Also in the Kirsten Rausing colours, but operating at a much more modest level, Heat And Dust won a couple of handicaps at Brighton and Catterick. The stable’s three-year-olds are renowned for often keeping a step ahead of the handicapper and a good example was the gelding Eagle’s Way who ran up a quick hat-trick at Brighton, Doncaster and Nottingham in the space of 15 days. He showed just modest form in maidens last season but is already useful with more to come. Indicative of the stable’s overall form was that only two of its last 23 runners in July failed to make the frame.
JOHNNY MURTAGH
- Winners and runners in Britain and Ireland in July: 3/54
- Strike rate in July: 5.6%
- Timeform run-to-form percentage in July: 64.8%
Judging a stable strictly on its number of winners can give a misleading picture of a stable’s form and that’s certainly the case with Johnny Murtagh’s runners in what proved a frustrating July for the trainer. Despite having one of the month’s best run-to-form percentages, that translated into a disappointing win total for the month of only three winners.
Two of those came from a pair of three-year-old fillies at the Curragh on Irish Oaks weekend, when Ladies Church was backed at long odds and took a big step forward with a smart effort to win the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes, while the Aga Khan’s Kerkiyra also showed plenty of improvement to made a successful handicap debut. At the same meeting, two-year-old filly Clounmacon looked unlucky not to make a winning debut when touched off by a nose at 33/1. She was one of no fewer than 16 placed runners for the yard during the month which underlines that the stable was in much healthier form than its meagre tally of winners would suggest.
AIDAN O’BRIEN
- Winners and runners in Britain and Ireland in July: 13/65
- Strike rate in July: 20%
- Timeform run-to-form percentage in July: 64.6%
A fine month for Aidan O’Brien ended at Goodwood where Gold Cup winner Kyprios confirmed himself a high-class stayer in getting the better of former winners Stradivarius and Trueshan in the Goodwood Cup. He wasn’t the stable’s only Group 1 winner of the month, either, as last year’s Cheveley Park Stakes winner Tenebrism returned to winning form in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville to give her trainer his first win the race. Another good result for Ballydoyle in France came in the Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly where Blackbeard was a clear-cut winner from stablemate The Antarctic.
Blackbeard was among several two-year-old winners of note for the stable during the month, with Little Big Bear completing a hat-trick in the Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh in most taking fashion. Auguste Rodin, Hans Andersen and Tower of London, winners of maidens at Naas, the Curragh and Leopardstown respectively, all looked colts capable of going on to better things, as does Denmark who made a winning debut at Naas on Monday. There was also the filly Never Ending Story who appeals as the type to go on improving after running out a cosy winner of the Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown.
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