Nick Luck’s William Hill blog: Rogue the one in the Falmouth

By News Team
12th July 2024

William Hill ambassador Nick Luck previews Friday’s action from Newmarket’s July Festival.

Newmarket, Friday

Mr Monaco is the each way pick in the TV opener at Newmarket Friday (1.50pm). This horse is burning away steadily, improving with each start, and now looks well ready for this step up in distance. The resurgent rider looks a bit of a secret weapon at the moment and he can be trusted to get this horse toward the head of affairs on a track which should really suit his running style.

Arabian Dusk is a punchy call to break her maiden in the Duchess of Cambridge (2.25pm). Pitched in deep in a very hot Empress Stakes last time, she ran with loads of credit, doing much the best of those held up. The clock and the opposition suggested that was pretty hot form for the grade, and she really doesn’t need too much more to figure. She was a costly and smart breeder, and her stable is going better now, too.

Zoffee is another at a price in the 14 furlong handicap (3.00pm). There’s nothing you don’t know about him, and you’d be right in thinking there are plenty less exposed in here. That said, this is a horse who returned at Chester in the form of his life, and you can forget about the run in a very muddling Northumberland Plate. An end-to-end gallop here will be much more up his street in a race in which he was a rather unlucky third two years ago from a comparable mark.

Rogue Millennium is the fourth big priced selection of the day in the Falmouth (3.35pm). On the face of it, she’s been a bit disappointing for new connections, but she should have won first time out, and then was done few favours by the switch of the Duke of Cambridge to the round course at Ascot. Essentially she is a galloping miler, for whom a straight and strongly run mile are absolutely ideal. With Running Lion likely to swing along – and likely to be engaged early enough by Porta Fortuna, it could well be that the selection could pick up more than a few pieces.