Best bets for the July Festival 2024 - day two Friday

Just the one winner from three bets for Triple G on Thursday but all being well we should have a more profitable Friday; the old boy Girdy has a summer bug so hopefully a winner of three will see him perking up a little. The going is good-soft and they shouldn't see any rain before the end of racing. 

Best bets for the horse racing at Newmarket Friday

The first race of interest to me on Friday is the 6f Group Two Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes at 2.25. Heavens Gate and Mountain Breeze meet again having finished third and fourth respectively in the G.3 6f Albany at Royal Ascot and they look the pair to concentrate on here. Mountain Breeze started her career with two wins, here at HQ over 5f on debut then 6f before the run at Ascot. The chestnut daughter of Lope De Vega was impressive on both occasions and her effort at the Royal meeting can be forgiven with the yards runners not firing at all that week. All six of her siblings have been winners including of course champion two-year-old Pinatubo and I am prepared to give her another chance here. I am on at 5-1. Heavens Gate is very much feared but she may not get as easy a time out front here today. Charlie Appleby said of his charge this week  “We have been very pleased with how Mountain Breeze has come out of Royal Ascot, and she looks to have done well physically since. Based on that, and looking at the shape of the race, we feel that she should be very competitive.”

The mile Group One Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at 3.35 is the race of the day with some decent fillies lining-up. The three-year-old get a significant weight allowance at this time of year and receiving 9lb from the older generation Porta Fortuna looks to have a good opportunity to follow up her victory in the G.1 Coronation Stakes having just been held in the 1,000 Guineas before that. The only concern is she has had two quite tough races already this season but she was heavily campaigned as a two-year-old and it did her no harm. Her best form is on good-firm but the ground should be fine and Ryan Moore takes over in the saddle. I am on at 11-10. Running Lion is perhaps the biggest danger after her G.2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes win but this would require a career best for the four-year-old to beat the jolly and she has to give her that 9lb. 

Mothecombe as a debutant from Moulton Paddocks here at HQ has to be backed in the 7f  Weatherbys British Ebf Maiden Stakes at 4.10. William Buick rides suggesting he is the yard number one and the colt makes obvious appeal on paper. By multiple G.1 winner Ghaiyyath he is out of Devonshire, a G.2 winner in her day, so a half-brother to three winners including G.3 winner Fairy Cross and from a family that has produced plenty of winners down the years. I am on at 5-1 early. 

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