Racing Centre

Lester Piggott, along with Frankie Dettori, will tomorrow officially open the £10m July Course redevelopement  

THE BRILLIANT three-day Ritz Club July Festival begins tomorrow with a sparkling eight-race card, preceded by a Group 1 Arab event.

There are three Group contests for thoroughbreds plus some fascinating handicaps on what is Classic FM day.

No doubt that the highlight will be the UAE Hydra Properties Falmouth Stakes, a mile Group 1 for fillies and mares where the three-year-olds get to tackle their elders for the first time at the highest level.

Red Evie, Nannina and Simply Perfect are all Newmarket-trained Group 1 winners in the field, while Irridescence adds international quality to the select line-up. South African trainer Mike De Kock gives the globe-trotting mare her first competitive outing on British soil.

On a day where fillies and mares hold sway, the rescheduled HBLB Lancashire Oaks will see 13 assemble for a mile-and-a-half Group 2 showdown. Earlier in the card, the juvenile fillies will do battle over six furlongs in the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cherry Hinton Stakes.

This is always a hugely influential race as regards the betting for the following year’s 1000 Guineas and it will be intriguing to see if Queen Mary heroine Elletelle can progress again for this Group 2 in which she’ll have to compete against Albany Stakes second You’resothrilling among others.

The racing Post Bloodstock EBF Fillies’ Handicap follows the top-class Arab race - the £25,000 President of the UAE International Derby over 10 furlongs - which starts the action at 1pm. There is also a hot-looking totesport.com heritage handicap staged over six furlongs.

This meeting is also renown for its interesting two-year-old maidens - not least tomorrow’s Ian Macnicol Memorial Strutt and Parker race over seven furlongs. The racing concludes with the mile-long Classic FM handicap.

And the whole afternoon will be played out to a backdrop of live classical music, which will start before racing.

Don’t miss, either, the official opening of the new-look July Course. Frankie Dettori and Lester Piggott will do the honours at 12noon following the £10m redevelopment of the July Course facilities.

By Tony Rushmer