What a week

‘July Week’ in Newmarket is always top notch but this year it seemed to be better than ever.

My personal highlight didn’t take place here but it did involve a lovely horse and a great girl from Newmarket. Hannah’s first winner has been an occasion we’ve all been waiting for since she got her apprentice licence in December 2010. She had her first ride on Kadouchski back then (pictured after coming in fourth, beaten just a length) and it was wonderful to see her steer him to victory with such aplomb at Folkestone on Thursday. She’ll be back in action aboard Ethics Girl at Sandown on Wednesday and it’s my opinion that she’ll be well worth following over the coming months and years,

Of course this week was really about another female jockey, Hayley Turner, who has blazed a great trail for the other girls to follow. Seeing her win her first Group 1 on Dream Ahead in the July Cup was special indeed and she’s sure to be a standing dish in the top races from now on.

The centrepiece is three great days of racing at HQ, which, by the way, does not really work being run from Thursday to Saturday as so many people in town for the week were leaving to go home on Friday night. Rather a shame for July Cup day to feel so ‘after the show’.

Behind the scenes there’s plenty more going on. The July Sale seemed to be strong enough this year and the Darley stallion parade was as fantastic as ever, with the added bonus being a cameo appearance by Joey from the excellent play War Horse (pictured left).

Of the 13 stallions parading, I most enjoyed seeing the Derby winners Authorized, who looked tremendous with a dappled coat, and New Approach. Both young stallions have let down really well and, like all the others, are extremely well cared for by Ken Crozier and his team.

The gang from Arqana pitched up in Newmarket again – three of them staying here – and launched their August Sale catalogue on Friday at the races with a delicious French lunch to boot. It won’t be long before the European yearling season is underway in Deauville and I always start to panic slightly at the thought of it, as it seems that no sooner has the August Sale begun than December is upon us and we’re back to Tatts in the freezing cold. Awful to be wishing the year away when we’re in the middle of such a lovely summer but the sales season has a habit of hoovering up the second half of the year.

Sunday was the first proper day I’ve had off in more than a month and John and I headed off fairly early to a horse show at the Animal Health Trust, at which John had been invited to judge. The show has taken place in July Week for a few years now and one ring is dedicated to thoroughbreds, most of whom have retired from racing.

A surprise entrant was the 2007 Melbourne Cup runner-up Purple Moon. Now eight, he has been living in retirement at Luca and Sara Cumani’s Fittocks Stud and is about to embark on a secondary career as a competition horse.

As a €550,000 yearling, who later sold for 440,000gns as three-year-old and earned more than £1 million in his racing days, one might think that appearing for a rosette at a local show was a bit beneath the son of Galileo, but he appeared to be loving every minute of it, enjoying all the fuss and attention and rifling through the pockets of his adoring attendants Chantelle and Francesca for polo mints at every opportunity (he is pictured performing his trick of eating a polo from Francesca's mouth). Purple Moon ended up as overall show champion, and rightly so.

Honorary mention must also be given to Strike Force, a regular at the show who is still very much enjoying his racing. The seven-year-old son of Dansili has run 78 times
for nine wins and 23 places and looked a real picture in the ring. Full credit must go to his owner, work rider and occasional race rider Alison Hutchinson, who has the old boy in tip-top order.

Alison’s partner Vinny told me that Strike Force always runs well after the show. Last August, he and Alison won an amateur race at Beverley and he is pencilled in to go back to the Yorkshire track very soon if the ground stays firm. That’s the closest this blog will ever come to being a tipping column: don’t say you weren’t warned!