July Cup Day

Professional tipster Ben Merritt gives his thoughts on today's racing...

1:55 Ascot - DUBAI BLING 6/1 (NAP)

DUBAI BLING will be held up and, given he stays 6f well, he should be perfectly suited by this fast run 5. He went into the tracker two starts ago when flying home from an impossible position, and a terrible draw, at Chester to be beaten a tiny margin. With that, I had a keen eye on him at Royal Ascot, for which he was backed from 80/1 into 20/1 under Oisin Murphy. He has no issue with the draw that day but he did have absolutely no luck in running, having his running stopped at least 3 times in the last couple of furlongs. He clearly has the speed for 5, as he's shown at Chester and he clearly has the potential to run a huge race from this mark as that Wokingham run displayed (drpped 1lb for it too). Down in grade here he should be flying home late. The draw might not be the best, based on past winners, but all the pace is middle to low so hopefully they run down the centre and not the stands rail.

3:45 Sandown - RAAMMEE 5/1 (Next Best)

RAAMMEE is very lightly raced and hasn't yet proven himself over this trip. but he's always been held in huge regard and a horse who connections feel is a group horse. Winless from two starts so far this year, his last run was certainly the best and the clear evidence that he's a horse who looks sure to appreciate this step up in trip. He was beaten a small margin at Sandown that day, but run the last two furlongs of that race more than half a second quicker than the winner (that's a lot of lengths in simple terms) and was only one of 2 horses to break 13 seconds for the last furlong too. The other horse, still slower than him, went on to finish 2nd in a heritage handicap over the same C&D next time out. Roger Varian is mopping up bog field handicaps right now and has a good record both in this race and at York too. His wide draw isn't ideal, but stall 19 defied it last year so isn't the end of the world either.

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