The last major meeting of the British Flat season at Headquarters sees an intriguing Future Champions Festival 2025 Newmarket races day 1 card headlined by the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile on Friday, 10 October.
Supporting that are a couple more juvenile races in the Cornwallis Stakes for sprinters and the fillies only Oh So Sharp. This fixture isn’t just about two-year-olds running on the border of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, however.
Also on the supporting card is the three-year-olds only Old Rowley Cup Heritage Handicap and Group 3 Pride Stakes for fillies and mares over middle distances. The Group 2 Challenge Stakes at a specialist distance of seven furlongs completes the best of the action.
That gives the Future Champions Festival 2025 Newmarket races day 1 card plenty of variety, if nothing else. Even though we’re now well into autumn, Irish raider still come across to plunder the valuable prizes on offer at Headquarters.
Sifting through all the form are our horse racing experts. They study runners of all ages and genders in search of some value. With a bit of luck, they unearth prices on horse racing betting sites that are worth taking on this action.
You can read their thoughts, analysis and Friday fancies from six races below. Each of the Pattern events and the big handicap get the same treatment from our experts, so check out which horses they favour and why…
Future Champions Festival 2025 Newmarket Races Day 1 Preview for Friday, 10 October
1:15 – 6f Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes
King Power Racing’s Revival Power is a fast filly. but she’s also carrying a penalty in this opener, so concedes 2lb and upwards all-round to the field. While it’s possible Tim Easterby’s new sprinting star will burn off her rivals from the front, dropping back to the minimum trip could open new doors for BRUSSELS after his Middle Park second here last month.
Aidan O’Brien sends a strong team over from Ireland for the opening day of this meeting. In Brussels, he has a Group 1 placed horse eased in grade and down in distance. That runner-up effort reads well in relation to Revival Power as he had stable companion Kanasas, who filled the same spot behind the filly in the Flying Childers at Doncaster, behind and beaten further in fifth spot.
Godolphin have a runner from the local Charlie Appleby yard in Beckford’s Folly, meanwhile, who is also prominent in the betting. He’s a dual July Course novice winner who has been gelded after his subsequent sixth in this grade in the Sirenia Stakes around Kempton. Harry Rosebery winner Chairmanfourtimes steps up for Adrian Keatley with Spicy Marg perhaps best of the other fillies.
1:50 – 7f Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes (Fillies)
The form case for Classic Cuvee is obvious after she bumped into subsequent Group 2 Rockfel winner Zanthos on her racecourse debut. Both could be worthy winners, but there was lots to like about recent course and distance scorer MUBASIMAH when she broke her maiden making all her about a fortnight ago. Andrew Balding’s Frankel filly saw out the trip well from re-opposing runner-up Shady Dame.
Mubasimah is still completely unexposed, and has a length and a tail in hand on her old rival. It’s hard to rule any of these females out completely, however. Blingy’s Sister shapes like going up in trip will suit for Hugo Palmer, while Midnight Tango has run well at Headquarter before. Coming Attraction is back on a sounder surface and Tavana won on a straight 7f at Newbury last time.
2:25 – 7f Group 2 Challenge Stakes
Cosmic Year finds another gear 💪
Ryan Moore guides him to @TrustATrader King Charles II victory 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ajcobfVjlg
— Newmarket Racecourse (@NewmarketRace) May 2, 2025
This looks a good opportunity for COSMIC YEAR to get his head back in front for Harry Charlton and Juddmonte. He was a taking winner over course and distance in a Listed Classic trial this spring and receives 2lb weight for age from all but one of his four rivals. Cosmic Year arrives on Future Champions Festival 2025 Newmarket races day 1 off a 70-day break that freshens him up.
Back on a sound surface, and with his course and distance form franked by the runner-up Marvelman landing a Group 2 at Doncaster last month, he should be winning this if reproducing his springtime runs. Poet Master could be the biggest danger, for all he’d prefer more cut in the ground. Karl Burke’s charge should strip fitter for last month’s Longchamp second following 169 days off the track.
Audience hasn’t looked the force of old this season, meanwhile. French raider Beauvatier was fourth in last term’s Champions Sprint at Ascot and only beaten a length, so it seems strange he’s not heading back to Berkshire. The most difficult horse to assess here is William Haggas runner Scoville, who has only had three starts and won like a long odds-on shot should on the July Course over the summer.
2:57 – 1m Group 1 Fillies’ Mile
Aidan O’Brien throws a curveball in running four females in the Future Champions Festival 2025 Newmarket races day 1 feature. On form, the pick of his quartet is Moyglare Stud heroine PRECISE. She started her winning sequence on a straight track at Cork and now looks ready having progressed through the grades to tackle a mile. Composing, meanwhile, seems to have lost her way.
Ballydoyle’s other runners Moments Of Joy and Sugar Island have it all to do to reverse form with Joseph O’Brien raider Queen Hawaii. She too has kept improving for stepping up to this trip and won her Group 3 at home Ireland with more authority than Sweet Solera scorer Dance To The Music. Appleby sent her across the Atlantic for a tilt at a valuable Grade 1 in Canada when she was only fourth.
Sir Mark Prescott thinks a lot of Moon Target, meanwhile, and she chased home Precise in the Prestige Stakes. at Goodwood. While she didn’t fire at Doncaster, the one behind her previously Aylin came out and landed the May Hill. Moon Target could be worth another chance to outrun her odds over a mile at her local track after a keeping on third in the Rockfel here last time.
Juddmonte and the John & Thady Gosden stable show no hesitation in pitching Legacy Link right in at the deep end here. Although only third to Karl Burke’s re-opposing Evolutionist in a July Course maiden, this one came out and landed a Haydock novice nicely enough last time. Amora Queen has won her two career starts, so is the pick of Charlie Johnston’s pair with Venetian Lace having a lot of races.
3:30 – 1m 4f Old Rowley Cup (Heritage Handicap)
Freshened up since, Yabher clearly didn’t give his true running with everything going wrong when last in action. Prior to that, he looked a promising middle-distance sort when getting up by a neck around Sandown over a mile-and-a-quarter. Similar comments apply to the Gosdens’ Godolphin runner Dangerman, who won in lower grades before a soft surface scuppered his hat-trick bid at the Esher venue.
Market principals Respond and Munsif bring Doncaster form to the table. The former shaped like a step up in trip would help him when third over the mile-and-a-quarter. As for Munsif, Varian landed a mile-and-a-half handicap with him on Town Moor and now has a 6lb hike to contend with. Re-opposing fifth Ivatt is 5lb better off with him for fading into a 2 1/2 lengths fourth there.
Another at bigger odds who shapes like going up in distance is indicated, meanwhile, is Something Splendid. Peter Chapple-Hyam has saddled him to a couple of seconds around the aforementioned tracks following a July Course success in modest Class 5 company. Something Splendid has more on his plate now, but has a lovely racing weight of 8st 5lb and is actually 1lb well-in on future assignments.
4:45 – 1m 2f Group 3 Pride Stakes (Fillies & Mares)
1,2 for Frankel in the Gr3 Snow Fairy Stakes with RED LETTER (Group/Graded winner #109) def Sand Gazelle@JuddmonteFarms pic.twitter.com/ecdcCGtmug
— Pedigree Update (@pedigreeupdate) August 31, 2025
Stepping back up a furlong in trip well help Sand Gazelle, who looks value to turnaround a course and distance run with Falakeyah. Burrows puts a first-time hood on Shadwell’s lightly-raced filly, who drops in grade but hasn’t run since Royal Ascot. Three-year-olds have won five of the last seven editions of this, so it makes sense to focus on them.
Ralph Beckett landed the spoils with an older filly 12 months ago, however, so Skellet should run well. She shaped like going back up in trip would help her when third to two placed in the Sun Chariot last Saturday in the Atalanta Stakes at Sandown in September. Godolphin run two with Appleby stable jockey and retained rider William Buick on Victory Queen, meanwhile.
She faded into fourth behind the selection at York with re-opposing third Charlotte’s Web also going past her close home. Victory Queen and that one have both won Listed races subsequent to their Knavesmire meeting, but it only underscores the claims of Sand Gazelle. Spirited Style isn’t crying out to come back in trip, though, and similar comments apply to Charlotte’s Web.
