The lingering uncertainty over the shape and size of Newmarket’s racing programme this year and beyond was at least partially concluded on Thursday when the track announced that a new two-day “Future Champions Festival” meeting will be staged on the Rowley Mile on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October. The long-term scheduling of the three-day July Festival remains unclear, however, with the meeting confirmed in its controversial Thursday-to-Saturday slot in 2015 and Amy Starkey, Newmarket’s managing director, able to say only that the course is “open” to the possibility of reverting to a midweek position from 2016.
After several years of upheaval due largely to the creation of Champions Day at Ascot in mid-October, the autumn programme for juveniles now has an air of finality.
Last year, Future Champions Day was staged at Newmarket just 24 hours before Champions Day itself, and included three Group One races: the Dewhurst Stakes, the Middle Park Stakes and the Fillies’ Mile. This year, the Fillies’ Mile will be the feature event on the first afternoon of the new two-day Festival meeting, while the Dewhurst will join the Cesarewitch Handicap on the following day’s card. The Middle Park, meanwhile, has already been repositioned during the Cambridgeshire meeting in late September, which will give the winner an opportunity to run in the Dewhurst two weeks later.
The new meeting will be run as the Dubai Future Champions Festival following sponsorship by Sheikh Mohammed, the country’s ruler, while the prize fund for both the Dewhurst and Fillies’ Mile will increase to £500,000. The two races will be jointly Europe’s most valuable Group Ones for juveniles. The prize fund on both days will be just over £1m, with supporting races on Friday including the Group Two Challenge Stakes and the Group Three Cornwallis Stakes, while, in addition to the £250,000 Cesarewitch, Saturday’s programme will include two Group Three events, the Autumn Stakes and the Darley Stakes.
The latest changes to Flat racing’s autumn schedule follow a decision by the European Pattern Committee, which oversees the timing and structure of the Group-race programme, to sanction an increase in the distance of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc Day in Paris in early October from seven furlongs - the same trip as the Dewhurst - to a mile. This allowed the Dewhurst to move to its new position just six days after the Arc.
“This new format will be the settled home for this Festival from now on,” Amy Starkey, Newmarket’s managing director, said. “It is all about the development and celebration of the thoroughbred, fantastic racing for the public and participants, and enhances the autumn and two-year-old race programme in the best long-term interests of our sport.”
The timing of the new meeting is significant not just for the course but also the town of Newmarket as a whole, as it is positioned between the Book 1 and Book 2 bloodstock sales at Tattersalls’ auction house.
John Gosden, one of Newmarket’s leading trainers, said the previous schedule for two-year-olds had been “an unsatisfactory situation which Newmarket has now dealt with brilliantly”.
Gosden added: “You now have the Friday and Saturday at Newmarket right in the middle of the sales and don’t forget that these are the most important yearling sales in the northern hemisphere. People will be here from all around the world and we will be showcasing British racing and breeding at a very important time. The races are in the right places now and it’s written in stone for the future.
“The changes made to create QIPCO Champions Day [in 2011] were the omelette and breaking the eggs. A lot of eggs got broken and a lot of damage was done to the two-year-old programme. I think that’s now been put right, but you can’t do it overnight.
“The change to the distance of the Lagardère has been like the key that unlocked the safe. It has permitted Newmarket to create something that it couldn’t have done over the last few years.”
While the structure of the autumn programme has now been resolved, however, the position of the July Cup on what is already a busy Saturday with valuable and well-attended meetings at York, Ascot and Chester remains uncertain. The fixture clash will continue for this year at least, with a move back to a Wednesday-to-Friday slot for the July Festival from 2016 only a possibility at this stage.
“That met with criticism and has been the source of ongoing debate in recent years,” Starkey said. “In looking to make these changes, we’ve looked at our programme and our fixtures in their entirety so we are open to moving the July Festival to a midweek slot from 2016, but it is a complicated process and it’s not quick. We are working with the stakeholders to secure that change. It hasn’t been confirmed, but we are open to it.”
Holywell is top-priced at 12-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup after recording an easy success in the Ivan Straker Memorial Chase at Kelso. Ridden by Tony McCoy, Holywell started at 1-4 to beat three opponents and made all the running, jumping soundly after a mistake at the first, to win by 25 lengths.
“He had to go and do what he did really, so it’s nice he’s gone up there and done it and you’d have to be happy,” Jonjo O’Neill, Holywell’s trainer, said. “It’s nice to have got the run in and he did all he could do. He’s economical with his jumping, he’s never going to be the most extravagant. [The Gold Cup] is the plan.”
McCoy is more likely to be aboard Carlingford Lough, who won the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown last Sunday, in next month’s Gold Cup but feels Holywell deserves his place in the field.
“He jumped well after the first,” McCoy said. “It’s amazing how different a horse he is in the spring. He just seems to be better for some reason.
“He was the highest-rated novice [chaser] last season after Aintree and he’ll do nothing but keep improving. He is definitely a horse who will have a good chance in the Gold Cup.”
At Meydan, Maftool and Paul Hanagan edged out their main market rival Mubtaahij by a head in the Group Three UAE 2,000 Guineas. Mubtaahij, trained by Mike de Kock and ridden by Pat Dobbs, was ahead with just under three furlongs to run but Maftool took over inside the final quarter-mile and ran on well to secure the win.
“He started to get in the kickback [on Meydan’s new dirt surface] so I pulled him out but then ended up getting there too soon,” Hanagan said. “He had to battle in the end.”
