Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 27 July 2026

I want to start this week with a look back at the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Although heralded as one of the best renewals of recent years, I’m not sure that all the horses ran to form.

The Japanese pair, Masquerade Ball and Wurttemberg, were edgy beforehand and finished a long way behind. The Japanese racing programme reaches its climax in our late autumn / early winter, and it’s a two-day journey from Japan to Ascot.

The Japanese are producing a better class of horse each year but the European calendar doesn’t work in their favour and this could continue to prove an insurmountable problem.

I did suggest beforehand that, on various interpretations of this season’s form, Calandagan had not built on last year’s figures.

In the Dubai Sheema Classic he beat West Wind Blows, rated 23lbs inferior, by three-quarters of a length and then last time he was all out to beat a horse rated 15lbs his inferior by a neck. Then, between those two runs he had trailed home 42 lengths behind the winner in the Coronation Cup, albeit on desperate ground.

Although he was allowed to come home in his own time at Epsom, at Saint-Cloud he looked all out to win and those two races may have taken the edge off him.

There was only a length between him and Kalpana last year so the mare didn’t have to improve much (or the favourite to run much below form), to bring them closer together.

Of greater concern for me was the performance of Minnie Hauk and especially how it was foreseen in the market.

Having been backed from 10/1 down to 11/2 in the week, as the race approached she drifted out to 17/2 and double figures on Betfair.

The four-year-old was given the perfect ride but dropped back tamely soon after passing the 2f marker.

I have mentioned many times before how informed the betting market is with the Ballydoyle horses … both from a negative and a positive perspective. As John McCririck used to exclaim when a leading fancy became the subject of a substantial drift, “This cannot win!” And they seldom did.

Perhaps Minnie Hauk was in season or will be found to be ailing from something. There is, of course, a question mark over Aidan O’Brien’s recent form … just five winners from his last 47 runners in the last fortnight at a strike-rate of 11% when he normally operates at double that.

But someone, somewhere, knew that Minnie Hauk was not at her best and that led to the drift on Betfair.

Kalpana kicked into a clear lead two furlongs from home and always looked like holding on. She has only once finished out of the first three in 17 starts … in last year’s Arc … and it was fascinating to learn afterwards from her trainer that they struggled to get the weight off her last year and that she is now a leaner model.

She is now a top price of 9/4 for the Yorkshire Oaks and 12/1 for the Arc.

Elsewhere on the card I was most impressed by the manner in which Amazing Journey won the International Heritage Handicap.

The son of Starspangledbanner had shown a sharp turn of foot to win a 0-95 over 6f at the track 15 days earlier and it was again that change of gear which proved decisive over this longer trip.

The three-year-old was 5lbs well in and I expect him to be rated in the low 100s next week.

You don’t need to be reminded that it’s Glorious Goodwood this week. It’s a meeting that I used to avoid, on the grounds that you couldn’t be sure that the best horse would win every race, but since they’ve introduced the cutaway you see far fewer cases of trouble in running.

I’ve been sitting on some news for the meeting for a while now and, with the forecast set fair, I’m looking forward to passing on my thoughts for each of the five days.

I’ll be back next week with some more observations.

Bye for now

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