Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 21 September 2026

Following on from last week’s reflections on the ante-post market, I want to take a look at the likely contenders for some of the top autumn races.

For many of us the highlight of this week’s Cambridgeshire meeting will be the potential clash between Sun Goddess, Senorita Bonita and Libertango in Saturday’s Cheveley Park. Stakes.

As always in such cases, although the market suggests that this is a three-horse race, with fillies in the autumn you can never be sure that things will go as planned.

Those who are fortunate enough to be paddock-side before the race will have a distinct advantage over the rest of us, as the two-dimensional image shown on the TV screen is never as revealing as being there.

The form pundits will be in their element here, because the three protagonists have met each other before and tactically we could be in for a humdinger, as each filly has displayed a turn of foot.

I’ll be passing on my final thoughts on Saturday, but looking further ahead to the 1000 Guineas, of the three fillies Senorita Bonita has the stoutest distaff line, being out of an unraced daughter of a Derby winner and related to Pattern-class middle-distance performers. She also appears to have the best turn of foot, and you know from last week how highly I regard her trainer Simon Crisford’s judgement of her.

I think he’ll be mortified if she is beaten.

We’ve had a number of impressive winners of maiden/novice races recently – in passing I expect Saturday’s Newbury winner Saint Mungo to have earned black type by this time next year – one of the most eye-catching was Sharadd, who won a 6f novice stakes at Haydock by six lengths for William Haggas earlier this month.

The son of Dark Angel ran to a mark in the mid-90s on a line through the third and after the race Maureen Haggas was firm in her belief that the colt was “all speed”, which suggests that the Middle Park Stakes may be favoured over the Dewhurst.

Two notes of caution are that the ground at Haydock was very soft and the time was only fair. Sharadd did, though, show great maturity in coming between horses from the two-furlong marker and making giant strides to go clear inside the final furlong.

As some of you may be aware, I’m a great admirer of Eve Johnson Houghton who, pound for pound, must rank amongst the most successful trainers in relation to her purchasing budget.

I was disappointed that Jimtrott was withdrawn from the Solario Stakes but I see his name appears in the four-day declarations for Thursday’s Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes (3.00).

Rated on 92, his Leicester form received a knock when the runner-up there was beaten off 91 in a nursery at Doncaster last week.

Eve likes Sugar Yes Please, a daughter of Mohaather who received a mark of 78 after winning a Newbury novice contest in July. Stable jockey Charlie Bishop was keen to see the filly exploit that rating in a nursery but he was overruled by the trainer and the filly instead landed the 7f Sweet Solera Stakes, beating the 96-rated favourite at level weights and incurring a 24lbs rise to 102.

She is currently top rated for Friday’s Group 2 Rockfel Stakes (2.25) but this won’t be straightforward, as she is up against a couple of less-exposed types.

Stable star Zavateri is firmly on course for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on 17 October, having demonstrated that he can handle soft ground when comfortably landing the Group 2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood.

The three-day Cambridgeshire meeting this week promises to be a thriller.

As always Jodie and I will be passing on our thoughts in the Weekend Bulletin. I hope that you’ll be joining us.

Bye for now

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