Timeform reaction to the best weekend performances including Alcohol Free and Royal Aclaim

Alcohol Free (123 from 113+)

Alcohol Free proved at least as good as ever when winning Saturday’s July Cup at Newmarket, running easily her best race of the campaign to register the fourth Group One success of her career.

Both her top-level wins last season were achieved over a mile, but she was always in her comfort zone over the much shorter trip on Saturday, clearly having been sharpened up by her run in the Platinum Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot three weeks earlier.

Indeed, the most striking aspect of her performance was how smoothly she travelled before putting her stamp on the race inside the final furlong, ultimately beating the Platinum Jubilee winner Naval Crown (123) by a length and a half.

Alcohol Free is now likely to bid for a repeat win in the Sussex Stakes, but that will be a much tougher assignment up against the likes of Baaeed and Coroebus. She will also need to settle better than has sometimes been the case in her races over a mile and the fact she now has two runs in sprints under her belt is unlikely to help in that regard.

With that in mind, there must surely be a temptation to stick to sprinting after she became just the third filly or mare to win the July Cup this century, following in the footsteps of Frizzante (2004) and Fleeting Spirit (2009).

Alcohol Free would certainly be the one to beat in a race like the Sprint Cup on this display. After all, she has already shown form good enough to win an average running of that Group One – particularly with her 3-lb sex allowance taken into account – and there is nothing out of the ordinary about the current crop of six-furlong sprinters she’s up against.

Read Timeform's full report of the Darley July Cup

Royal Aclaim (120p from 96p)

Royal Aclaim and Winter Power were sent off the 11/4 joint favourites for the Listed City Walls Stakes at York on Saturday, but they met with very different fates in the race itself.

Whilst the four-year-old Winter Power ran better than she had on her first two starts this season, she was still a long way shy of what she was capable of last year, showing her customary speed but soon done with once headed over a furlong out. It's looking increasingly likely that she hasn't trained on from three to four.

Royal Aclaim, on the other hand, could hardly have been more impressive as she made it three wins from as many starts for James Tate, coping easily with the steep rise in class in the style of one destined for bigger and better things.

She was settled just behind the leaders in the early stages, travelling powerfully, and the writing was on the wall as she cruised into the lead over a furlong out, quickly drawing clear from there to win by two lengths with plenty in hand.

The exciting Royal Aclaim is very much a filly on the fast track to Group One company, with everything about her so far suggesting she'll hold her own at that level when the time comes, most likely in next month’s Nunthorpe Stakes over the same course and distance.

With a Timeform rating of 120p, Royal Aclaim probably won’t need to improve much to emulate what Winter Power did last year by completing the City Walls/Nunthorpe double, the absence of Nature Strip leaving just a mediocre bunch of domestic five-furlong sprinters standing in her way.

Prosperous Voyage (117 from 112)

Friday’s Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket looked a simple task for Inspiral, with her most serious rival among the three-year-olds (Homeless Songs) again missing and the older generation represented by a pair who had shown form well short of what would normally be required.

In the event, however, Inspiral didn’t even come close to repeating the form of her scintillating victory in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot three weeks earlier, running flat and having to settle for the runner-up spot behind Prosperous Voyage, a filly she’d got the better of three times previously.

The quick turnaround may have been to blame, particularly as Inspiral had spent eight months on the sidelines before running at Ascot. She’d looked so good there that it will be disappointing if she can't repeat that effort, though clearly her top stable will have work to do to get her back on track.

As for Prosperous Voyage, who had been down the field at Ascot, she wasted no time getting back to form to gain a breakthrough Group One success after a couple of seconds, first when chasing home Inspiral in last year’s Fillies’ Mile and then when beaten just a neck behind Cachet in the 1000 Guineas earlier this season.

This was her best performance yet as she set the pace and came back strongly after being headed inside the final two furlongs, well on top by the line as Insprial came to the end of her tether.

Other Group Ones at around this trip promise to take more winning, but Prosperous Voyage has a likeable way of going about things which should continue to stand her in good stead, while both her pedigree and style of racing suggest she will be at least as effective over further.

Tenebrism (116 from 112)

Tenebrism wasn’t far behind Inspiral amongst Timeform’s top-rated two-year-old fillies in 2021 after she produced a remarkable performance to win the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, her first start since making a successful debut on the opening day of the season in Ireland six months earlier.

After failing to do herself justice when sent off favourite for the 1000 Guineas on her reappearance this season, Tenebrism then left the impression she was coming to the boil when fourth behind Inspiral in the Coronation, and so it proved as she built on that effort with a career best to resume winning ways in Sunday’s Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.

Dropped back to seven furlongs instead of reopposing Inspiral in the Falmouth, Tenebrism raced in mid-division before being shaken up entering the final two furlongs. It was then that the clinical turn of foot she’d shown as a two-year-old kicked in and she was ultimately a decisive winner, beating Light Infantry by a length and a half.

Tenebrism holds entries over a wide range of trips – including the Sprint Cup over six furlongs and the Irish Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter – but she seems likely to be campaigned over a mile and against her own sex, with Aidan O’Brien nominating the Prix Rothschild and Matron Stakes as a couple of potential targets.

Like Prosperous Voyage, Tenebrism has a bit to find to make an impact against Inspiral and Homeless Songs on their best form, though in her case she is still very lightly raced, so it’s by no means out of the question that she may yet have more to offer.

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