City slicker strikes for Godolphin in July Stakes

Inner City Blues justified odds-on favouritism to win the Kingdom of Bahrain July Stakes at Newmarket, coming away powerfully from his two rivals close home.

Charlie Appleby’s colt delivered a first winner for the trainer in the race, taking over at the head of affairs from the front-running Adaay Of Scarlett a furlong out and powering clear near the line to win at 5-6.

William Buick’s mount, following up his York maiden victory on debut, looked a horse of some potential clearing away by a length and a quarter from the Hugo Palmer-trained runner-up. Phillip Makin’s Epsom scorer Hickory Lad was third.

“Will said he could be a horse that gets a bit quicker as he gets wiser,” said Appleby. “But what I love about him is that a lot of horses that travel, when they do come off the bridle they drop backwards – when he comes off the bridle he keeps finding.

“He is a lovely horse for a jockey to ride because he just slips through the gears rather than jumping. I think he is a horse with a bright future, but trip-wise as usual I would sit on the fence and let the dust settle. See what he does mentally.

“Physically he is a strong individual, but he shows a little bit of mental immaturity. I’m not ruling out the Gimcrack. I think Nabati is a Gimcrack horse (won at Yarmouth). This horse may be the sort that goes up to seven, but let’s sit on the fence.

“The plan with Nabati is to bring him up here for six-furlong novice race on the Saturday of Goodwood and then look towards the Gimcrack with him. I just thinking timing-wise it fits in nicely.

“This horse could step up to seven furlongs – in the style he won there you’d say he could, but Will did say he could get quicker when he starts to engage that brain a bit more.

“It’s good to get a winner on the board. Everyone is entitled to their opinion (about the form of the yard), but as I’ve said since I started training I’ll let the horses do the talking.”

Regarding his group of juveniles he said: “There are a select group that I would say are stakes horses and we have purposely given them the time.

“People have their freedom of speech and there were some who were saying where were you at Ascot, but I am in the privileged position to train for someone (Sheikh Mohammed) who allows the horses to be given the time and I didn’t want to go to Ascot.”