Mutafaweq can take advantage of step up in trip

Mutafaweq can upset hot favourite Ramruma to provide the Godolphin team with their 13th Group One success of the year in the …

Mutafaweq can upset hot favourite Ramruma to provide the Godolphin team with their 13th Group One success of the year in the Rothmans Royals St Leger at Doncaster today.

This bay son of Silver Hawk has yet to contribute to that impressive tally but he has shown enough this season to suggest victory at the highest level is not out of reach.

He got off the mark for the campaign with an easy success in a conditions event on his reappearance at the Town Moor in May.

Mutafaweq then contested the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and he took the 12-furlong Group Two contest in good style.

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Handling the lively ground well, he raced prominently until taking over two furlongs out. Responding to pressure, he ran on strongly to account for Iscan - one of today's rivals - by two lengths.

Just nine days later he contested the Budweiser Irish Derby but ran a lacklustre race, finishing a 15-length fifth behind the brilliant Montjeu.

Connections believe the Curragh race came too soon after Royal Ascot and rested the colt until the Great Voltigeur Stakes seven weeks later.

He tracked the leaders at York but lost his pitch early in the straight only to rally well in the closing stages to finish fourth, beaten three and a half lengths behind Fantastic Light, giving the strong impression a step up in trip would suit.

Sure to have come on for his last run, Mutafaweq will find the fast going and 14 furlongs of today's Classic in his favour and is napped to prove too strong for likely odds-on shot Ramruma, who may be feeling the affects of a tough campaign which has seen her record three Group One victories.

Each-way value could lie with Noushkey, easy winner of the Lancashire Oaks before breaking a blood vessel in the Yorkshire equivalent last time.

Buy Or Sell can complete a three-timer in the Polypipe plc Flying Childers Stakes over five furlongs.

Following a good second in a valuable Newmarket nursery in July when he failed by a length to concede 6lb to the smart Littlefeather, Tim Easterby's tough colt registered wins at Ripon and York in the space of five days.

On the latter occasion he ran on gamely to land a five-furlong Listed race in game fashion by a head from Alfailak.

Judged on that latest effort, Buy Or Sell appears to be improving and can progress further by landing today's Group Two.

The "Showcase" handicap, the Ladbroke Stakes, can go to the David Barron-trained Over To You judged on his good one-and-three-quarter-length second to the useful Westender at Ripon last time.

Brecongill Lad can regain the winning thread in the London Metro Newspaper Stakes at Goodwood.

This consistent seven-year-old, like many sprinters, has enjoyed a new lease of life since joining David Nicholls with three wins and a second to his credit from his last four starts.

He failed to cope with the speedy Tuscan Dream at Epsom last time, keeping on well but unable to reel in the winner and went down by a length and a half in a race run in a very fast time.

Racing off a mark just 1lb higher, Brecongill Lad merits an interest.

Astonished has been confirmed as a definite runner in the Ladbroke Ayr Gold Cup on September 18th.