Run over six furlongs on the July Course at Newmarket, the July Cup was promoted to Group 1 status and, nowadays, is one of the most prestigious and valuable sprint races in the world, worth £628,500 in guaranteed prize money. It is currently scheduled as the feature race on the third, and final, day of the July Festival at ‘The Home of Horse Racing’.
Established in 1876, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the July Cup has produced numerous winners who have gone on to win the Cartier Award for Champion Sprinter, including Lethal Force (2013), Muhaarar (2015), Harry Angel (2017) and Starman (2021) in the last decade. The leading trainers in the history of the race, though, are Charles Morton, Vincent O’Brien and Aidan O’Brien, with five wins apiece.
In the early years of the twentieth century, Wantage trainer Charles Morton saddled Sundridge (1903, 1904) – who was, in fact, completing a hat-trick, having won in 1902 for his owner/breeder, Sir Samuel Scott – followed by Spanish Prince (1912, 1913) and Golden Sun (1914). The original ‘Master of Ballydoyle’, Vincent O’Brien, was responsible for Thatch (1973), Saritamer (1974), Solinus (1978), Thatching (1979) and Royal Academy (1990), while, more recently, his unrelated successor, Aidan O’Brien, has matched his record, courtesy of Stravinsky (1999), Mozart (2001), Starspangledbanner (2010), US Navy Flag (2018) and Ten Sovereigns (2019).
As a footnote, the July Cup is the only one of the 36 Group 1 races in the British Flat racing calendar that Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ has never won. Dettori, 52, is due to retire shortly and, granted that he is ruled out of the race in 2023, as the result of an eight-day ban imposed for using the whip once more than the permitted maximum of six times on the filly Inspiral, who was beaten a neck in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, he may forever rue the one that got away.