A busy day's racing and Newmarket's July Meeting takes centre stage. Here are the thoughts of our Racing Factors Long Shot tipster.
Newmarket
J: Hayley Turner
T: A M Balding
Imperial Guard had shown a fair level of form on the all-weather over the winter and early spring, which included a win at Kempton. However he really stepped up on those performances when pitched into handicap company on the turf this summer. He ran a fine race to finish 3rd of 12 at Ascot in May and then backed that up with a very creditable 5ht of 17 at York. In both of those runs he stayed on quite well at the end of the race and a strongly run 6f here at Newmarket is likely to suit him well considering he also has form over 7f. Still relatively lightly raced, there could well be more improvement on the cards and off a very light weight Imperial Guard should go close. Imperial Guard rates a 4 star each way Pick.