Shaquille gave Julie Camacho the first Group 1 win of her career when he captured the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and is the early favorite to provide the trainer with her second on Saturday at Newmarket in the July Cup.
Shaquille beat 12 fellow 3-year-olds going a straight six furlongs over good to firm going at Ascot winning the Commonwealth last month and will have eight rivals, including older horses, going a straight six furlongs over ground termed good to firm as of Thursday.
The Australian filly Vienna Princess will be a popular selection to win for the second time in three starts in a seven-furlong handicap at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on Friday evening.
Vienna Princess won a handicap for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Gardens on June 17, closing from seventh in a field of 13. A similar closing style ended with a sixth-place finish by a length in a handicap at 7 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Gardens on July 1.
Nashwa, a two-time Group 1 winner last year at age 3, has not looked like the same horse in two starts this season, and she might not even be the best hope in her stable for the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes on Friday at Newmarket.
Nashwa runs for co-trainers John and Thady Gosden, as does the progressive 3-year-old Coppice, who gets nine pounds from her older female rivals in the one-mile, straight course Falmouth.
Smart Image has compiled an impressive record of six wins in seven starts against lower-level competition in Australia, since he was transferred to trainers Trevor and Peter Rowe late last year.
The string of appearances in modest races ends to an extent when, Smart Image runs in the Newmarket Handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs at Mackay Racecourse in the far northeast of the country Thursday evening.
Zoumon has found his niche in marathon cup races in Australia in the last month.
Wins in the McKell Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Rosehill Gardens on June 17 and the Caloundra Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Sunshine Coast on July 1 have made Zoumon the favorite to record a third consecutive victory in the $133,000 Grafton Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Grafton Racecourse on Wednesday evening.
Zoumon will be favored in a field of 13 and is expected to take his customary position at the front of the field, a tactic that has worked in his last two starts.
The Australian gelding Far Too Easy is undefeated in three starts at Grafton Racecourse, part of a successful career that includes seven wins in 16 starts and a second-place finish in a restricted $1.23 million sprint at Royal Randwick Racecourse last October.
A perfect record at Grafton boosts Far Too Easy’s chances for his first career stakes win in the $133,400 Ramornie Handicap at six furlongs at the countryside venue on Tuesday evening.
Good Guess was 24-1 in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat on Sunday at Deauville Racecourse in France but won like an odds-on favorite, bursting into the clear inside the final quarter-mile and going on to a three-length victory.
French horses swept the top three placings with Sauterne second by three lengths over Breizh Sky as the actual odds-on favorite, Chaldean, faded to finish seventh in this seven-furlong straight-course contest for 3-year-olds.
The Australian filly Sheila has such a stout late kick that she may be impossible to hold off in a five-furlong handicap at Wagga Wagga Racecourse on Monday evening.
It does not hurt that Sheila is not too far removed from a maiden win at Albury on May 12.
Since that win, Sheila has finished second, fourth and third, never losing by more than two lengths. Last Monday, Sheila was third by slightly more than 1 1/4 lengths in a five-furlong handicap at Corowa Racecourse, closing sharply from seventh in a field of 10.
