Newmarket (July Course)
This month we turn our attention to Newmarket, generally regarded as the home of Flat racing with races at Newmarket dating back to the reigns of James I and Charles II. The town itself is home to around 70 racing yards including the likes of John and Thady Gosden.
For this article we are going to concentrate on the July Course where the action takes place during June, July and August. The July course is used exclusively during the summer months and unlike the Rowley course, after an initial climb it has a more level finish unlike the tough uphill grind of the finish at the Rowley Mile. Despite the two courses sitting next to each other in a quirk of geography the Rowley Mile is actually in Suffolk whilst the July Course lies in Cambridgeshire.
As this article will be out in time for August let’s take a look at who has been successful during this month over the past five years on the July Course.
All profit/loss figures are quoted to BSP at 2% commission.
Charlie Appleby is some way ahead in terms of August winners from 2021 to 2025. Almost double the next best in fact. Despite the winners he breaks even overall if we were to blind bet every selection. Not the worst starting point it has to be said. Particularly as he has a 39.66% strike rate and a 63.76% place strike rate.
In second place on wins is Ralph Beckett on 12 wins with a healthy 32.90 points of profit and a 28.57% strike rate and a 58.54% place strike rate.
Some other interesting ones there in terms of strike rate and profit are Karl Burke with a 27.59% strike rate and 11.70 points profit across just 29 bets, Marco Botti, 26.09% and 28.57 points up from 23 bets.
Let’s take a look at those ones in a little more depth to see what positive or indeed negative areas there are.
Charlie Appleby
Charlie Appleby shows a small profit on three of the years, one small loss and one bigger loss of -7 points (2023). 2024 and 2025 were profitable with 3.42 points and then 0.36 points last year.
Race Types
Maidens look to be the races to avoid here. His five year record stands at 4 wins from 20 runs with -9.62 points return with an A/E of just 0.76
Handicaps he is 6 from 9 and Novices 11 from 20 with 7.31 points up and 3.64 points up respectively.
Age Restrictions
His 2yo stats are the worst but that is doubtless heavily weighted on the aforementioned poor returns from Maidens. If we remove maidens then it is essentially our Novices figure from before bar one win (10 from 19)
Maiden races are now removed for the remaining information.
Jockeys
As you would expect William Buick has the most rides (16) from which he has 7 wins although making a small loss overall of 2.90 pts. The new kid on the block Billy Loughnane has been used six times and brought home five winners making 6.05 pts of profit. Four from five last year.
Days Since Run
In terms of how long they’ve been off the track when arriving at Newmarket in August then it doesn’t really seem to matter with winners pretty evenly spread. One thing to not be put off by though is an absence because there have been three runners that have come here with between 70 and 365 days off the track and all three have won.
Marco Botti
Marco Botti’s good record here from our figures doesn’t tell the whole story. The last two Augusts he has only managed one winner from eight runs. Three of those runs did come from horses who were 14/1 or higher in the forecast odds market. His record is 0 from 6 for those across the five years
Jockeys
If we look at just those jockeys who have recorded a win for Botti we are left with William Buick, Neil Callan, Tom Marquand and Benoit De La Sayette. Combined they are six for eight so a booking of one of those on board this September will be worth a look.
Karl Burke
Karl Burke’s August record here was pretty average before last year. Three wins from nineteen rides wasn’t the greatest record albeit he did still record a couple of points of profit across that, 10/1 winner, Bright Diamond, accounting for that.
However, 2025 saw his most runners and most winners for an August at Newmarket. He saddled ten runners and a very impressive five of them crossed the line first, making 9.06 points of profit at BSP.
Race Types
His maiden runners have done well here going 3 from 5 and account for most of his profit. Handicaps are also in profit (+3.08 pts) with 2 wins from 7.
Jockeys
Jockeys who have won for him here in August are Sam James (3 from 6), Clifford Lee (2 from 7), Daniel Tudhope (1 from 2) and David Egan and Shane Foley who have both won on their single ride on one of Burke’s Newmarket August runners. Those jockeys accounted for the five winners last year from eight of the ten runners he saddled. Foley, Egan and James were the winning jockeys.
Ralph Beckett
Beckett’s record is a good one here but last year was a disappointing 1 win from 6 although only recording a tiny 0.39pts loss so hardly a disaster after 2024’s 3 wins from 9 and 20pts of profit.
Race Types
Maidens, Novices and Handicaps are where he has done best in August. A total of 11 wins from 34 runners for almost 38 points of profit. This produced a profit in each of the last five Augusts at the July Course, even getting last year into a 0.61 profit with 1 from 5.
Jockeys
As far as jockeys are concerned from just those three race types above then Rossa Ryan stands out with an impressive 5 wins from just 9 rides. However, he didn’t have any rides for him here in 2025.
There are some interesting little angles there worth dialling in on this August.
Now let’s have a look at the trainer records across the whole three months at the July Course.
For the three month period Appleby once again is miles clear of anyone in terms of wins with an excellent strike rate and also nicely in profit as well. Gosden’s yard has the second most wins albeit with half the strike rate of Appleby. Elsewhere Ed Walker has a strong return as does David O’Meara whilst Ralph Beckett is again solid in his figures.
Let’s take a closer look.
Charlie Appleby
Race Types
Maidens look much better across the three months than they were just for August.
The previous 9 point loss we saw has been all but wiped out. Conversely Novices haven’t fared so well with a decent 22 from 56 in total but bear in mind he was 11 from 20 across August meaning it’s 11 from 36 for June and July over 5 years.
Not bad in itself but all the profit comes from the August meetings.
Handicaps continue to fare well though. A total of 18 from 48 for 31.79 points of profit over the 15 months we are looking at here.
By year that has seen two losing years, 2022 and 2025 but for just -1.18 and -2.80 points. Whereas his winning years have seen profits of 8.14, 15.22 and 12.40 points for 2021, 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Age Restrictions
Nothing stands out here at all. Good across the board, profitable in all age ranges raced in and each one in the mid to high 30% strike rates.
Jockeys
William Buick has had 112 rides winning on 46 of them for a 41.07% strike rate and 43.06 points profit.
James Doyle has had 49 rides with 15 wins but is just 2.62 points above breakeven but most of his rides are back in 2021 and 2022 anyway. Dougie Costello has a record of 4 from 11 over rides split between 2024 and 2025 so worth noting if he has a few rides again this year. Billy Loughnane is 6 wins from 8 in total and 0 from 1 in 2026.
Days Since Run
Across the whole five years he hasn’t gone far wrong with runners here whose last run was between 16 and 60 days. For those he is an impressive 46 wins from 105 runners, seeing him make a total of 57 points of profit.
Also, those off a long break of over 240 days have given him 7 winners from just 14 runs.
Ralph Beckett
Beckett has managed profit in all years bar the last one where he had a tiny loss of -0.16 points. His strike rate is pretty consistent with four of the five years hitting between 21 and 25% the only anomaly was 2024 at 15% but he gained 9 points of profit anyway.
Race Types
He shows an overall loss on Handicaps suggesting June and July are not successful here for him as we saw that his August was profitable on Handicaps. All other race types show a profit, with Novice and Maidens leading the way.
Betting blind on all his maiden and novice race runners at the July course across the last five years would have given us 52.33 points profit with a 30% strike rate across 40 bets.
The lowest profit was 2025 which came in with 2.23 points profit but it also by some way had the fewest bets with just four, winning two of those.
Jockeys
No less than 8 wins and 34 of those aforementioned points on Novices and Maidens came when either Rob Hornby or Rossa Ryan were riding.
Days Since Run
Those horses making their debut here are a very impressive 8 wins from 28 runners making a very nice 45.58 points of profit and 16.94 points profit on places as well with 61.24% of the runners placing.
There were slim pickings last year though with just one runner fitting the bill which didn’t place.
Ed Walker
What was a good record for 2021 to 2024 at the July Course with 16 winners from 59 runners and over 58 points profit collapsed somewhat in 2025 when he went 0 for 11! He did manage 6 places from those 11 though so perhaps there was a bit of bad luck involved in not picking up a win or two.
Race Types
He has 9 wins from 35 runners in Handicaps here making 29.48 points profit.
Age Restrictions
If we combine and look at 3yo+ Handicaps only his record improves to 8 from 29 for just one point less profit.
David O’Meara
Profitable in four of the five years, the one losing year (-7.13 points) was in 2022. Three of the four profitable years have seen double figure profits.
Race Types
As we could probably expect with O’Meara, Handicaps are where his success lies here. 11 wins from 44 runners for 52.04 points profit.
Jockeys
Looking at the jockeys on those handicap rides it doesn’t really seem to matter too much who is on them although interestingly Marquand (0-4) and Tudhope (0-6) have both drawn blanks.
Days Since Run
One to possibly avoid here, again just looking at his handicap runners.
Those who turned out within 10 or less days have not managed a win in nine attempts. 11-20 days is particularly impressive at 9 wins from 24 runs.
We’ll finish off with a quick look at how runners at the July course fared when looking at the track they last raced at. The table is ordered by Wins down to those with at least 10 wins.
It’s interesting that all those horses that ran at either of the Newmarket courses last time out have shown a profit here.
Chester, Haydock, Goodwood, Salisbury and York also show profit and a strike rate above 15%. Sandown is the only one with a strike rate above 15% that is showing a loss and that is just down -3.75 points over 166 runners.
Make of it what you will but here are the last five years and this year’s to date (1stJuly at time of writing).
Hopefully there’s plenty to chew on here and some angles to dial in on to help narrow the field or reinforce a selection.
Matt Russell
