Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 1 July 2025

I think it’s fair to say that the Irish Derby on Sunday confirmed the earlier impression that we are not dealing with a vintage crop of middle-distance three-year-olds this season.

Lambourn was all out to beat stable-companion Serious Contender, who 10 days earlier had been beaten into second place from a mark of 92 in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot.

Mind you that Ascot form could prove to be potentially high class, with the winner Merchant, who was in receipt of 2lbs, now rated on 103 and pencilled in for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.

Lambourn beat Lazy Griff by three lengths on Sunday, three-quarters of a length less than at Epsom, having beaten him at Chester in May by a length and a half. The evidence of these three runs confirms that there is no more than 2 or 3lbs between the two colts while Tennessee Stud has run to within a pound of Charlie Johnston’s colt.

The relatively mediocre level of the middle-distance three-year-old generation is reflected in the ante-post market for the King George, with Lambourn and King Edward VII Stakes winner Amiloc priced at best odds of 14/1.

The current favourite is the tenacious Jan Brueghel at 5/2, just ahead of Calandagan, who won his first Group 1 on Sunday when beating last year’s Arc runner-up Aventure in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

I am not surprised to see Calandagan attract market interest for Ascot, now a top price of 100/30 having been 4/1 on Sunday evening.

There have been a number of theories as to why the son of Gleneagles had struggled to win a Group 1, from four previous attempts, but I have never doubted his attitude and would be more inclined to look to his riders, who in last season’s Juddmonte and the Sheema Classic at Meydan left him with too much to do. Then he had been unlucky when short of room at a critical stage of the Champion Stakes and in the Coronation Cup at Epsom he didn’t handle the camber.

A little ease in the ground suits him while his experience of Ascot, when he won last year’s King Edward VII Stakes by six lengths and then that luckless run in the Champion Stakes, will stand him in good stead.

Jan Brueghel is exceptionally tough and has a half-length margin of superiority over Calandagan from the Coronation Cup, but Ascot suits the French horse far better than Epsom and he has the superior turn of foot.

As things look at the moment I don’t expect the three-year-olds to figure in this clash of the generations, with Calandagan my idea of the likely winner.

Looking elsewhere I believe we saw a useful prospect at York on Saturday. Hankelow made a winning debut for Karl Burke in a 7f novice stakes, beating Crest Of Fire who had run well against Humidity in that high-class maiden at Newbury.

The winner is a half-brother to 1m 6f winner Epic Poet and is bred to thrive over a mile or more. The trainer expects him to prove Pattern class.

Bye for now

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