No Half Measures Leaves Trainer In Tears After July Cup Success

The July Cup, sprinting’s midsummer title race, came up pinch a boil-over to lucifer nan soaring temperatures arsenic No Half Measures, astatine 66-1, gave nan erstwhile champion jockey Richard Hughes a first Group One occurrence arsenic a trainer to adhd to nan dozens he won successful nan saddle.

Notable Speech, last year’s 2,000 Guineas winner, group disconnected arsenic a lukewarm favourite contempt racing astatine a sprint travel for nan first time, but he could not find an other cogwheel successful nan closing stages aft Neil Callan connected No Half Measures deed nan beforehand a furlong out. The four-year-old filly stayed connected powerfully to nan statement to hit Big Mojo (12-1) and Run To Freedom (40-1), a tricast that paid retired astatine astir 28,000-1.

No Half Measures was nan biggest-priced victor successful nan July Cup’s 149-year history, and near her trainer successful tears successful nan winners’ enclosure. “It’s brilliant,” Hughes said. “Disappointments erstwhile you’re training are very difficult and nan highs don’t meet nan lows. We fancied nan filly yesterday, Mood Queen [in nan Duchess of Cambridge Stakes] and she vanished last, which was excruciating, and nan highs aren’t moreover precocious enough.

“I didn’t admit each those bully horses erstwhile I was riding, I conscionable took it for granted and I was very fortunate to beryllium riding for Richard Hannon and having nan Khalid Abdullah job. I was privileged to beryllium riding bully horses each year.

“I was a small spot naive erstwhile I started training. I thought if I bought 20 horses 1 of them was going to beryllium good. Then I bought 20 nan pursuing twelvemonth and still nary bully one. This is harder [than riding], but much rewarding for sure.”

The pecking bid among Charlie Appleby’s two-year-olds seems clear aft Saba Desert quickened a magnitude and a 4th clear of Italy, nan odds-on favourite, successful nan Group Two Superlative Stakes. Saba Desert, nan equine of William Buick, Appleby’s unchangeable jockey, went disconnected astatine 6-1 while Wild Desert, nan trainer’s different runner successful nan race, was a 7-2 shot, but Buick’s judgement outperformed nan marketplace and Saba Desert will now beryllium aimed towards Future Champions Day successful October.

Saba Desert races clear to triumph nan Superlative Stakes. Photograph: Nigel French for The Jockey Club/PA

“We’ve liked him from nan get-go and it’s a work-back from nan [Group One] Dewhurst now,” Appleby said. “Whether we determine to spell down nan [Group One] National Stakes way aliases nan [Group Two] Champagne [at Doncaster successful September], we’ll see, but he’ll get a spot of a break now. There’s plentifulness astir this horse, he’s a existent Dubawi and he’ll only get better.”

Earlier, More Thunder sewage up successful nan last half-stride of nan Bunbury Cup nether an outstanding thrust connected nan basking favourite by Tom Marquand, who switched from a wide tie to beryllium past successful nan early stages and past present his situation up nan stands’ rail, edging retired past year’s winner, Aalto, by a nose.

More Thunder had tally a akin title complete a furlong little erstwhile he was likewise well-backed for nan Wokingham Handicap astatine Royal Ascot past time, nan cardinal quality being that he had grounded by a caput to scope nan frontrunning Get It. Three strides from nan statement it seemed he was astir to travel up agonisingly short again but Marquand conjured up a last effort from More Thunder that sewage him complete nan statement pinch a mates of millimetres to spare.

More Thunder moved to William Haggas’s unchangeable complete nan wintertime aft nan status of Sir Michael Stoute and his caller trainer, who considered a tally successful nan July Cup, hopes to saddle nan four-year-old for a title astatine Group One level later successful nan season.

“We considered it [the July Cup] strongly, but we besides wanted to spell up to 7 furlongs astatine immoderate shape and this was an opportunity to do so,” Haggas said. “He could tally successful different handicap, but I deliberation he deserves a changeable astatine a bully title now.”