Mike de Kock’s highly-talented trio of Shea Shea, Soft Falling Rain and Kavanagh are among 61 entries for the July Cup at Newmarket.
All three were successful in Dubai in March with Shea Shea winning the Al Quoz Sprint, Soft Falling Rain taking three races including the Godolphin Mile and Kavanagh, who was sixth in the Golden Shaheen after scoring at Meydan four weeks earlier.
Shea Shea and Soft Falling Rain will arrive in Newmarket from Dubai on Friday, while Kavanagh is bound for the KrisFlyer Sprint in Singapore before he comes to the UK.
De Kock, who saddled JJ The Jet Plane to finish third in the 2009 Darley July Cup, said: “Shea Shea will run first at Royal Ascot and we will take it from there.
“He is a low-actioned horse so I am not too sure how he would deal with the undulations and maybe some cut in the ground, but we still have every intention of running him in the July Cup.
“At this stage you could compare him with JJ The Jet Plane and, though there is not a lot in it, at six furlongs JJ might just come out on top.
“Soft Falling Rain had a tough campaign in Dubai and is a young horse who currently is at a slight weight-for-age disadvantage (because of being bred to southern hemisphere time) so he is not guaranteed to go to Royal Ascot. There is a strong possibility that he could go straight to Newmarket.
“I believe that he would handle the drop back to six furlongs. He has the speed and he can also produce a sustained finish off a hard pace. In winning the Godolphin Mile he showed both talent and heart, which is a rare combination.
“Kavanagh is currently en route to Singapore and we will see how he gets on there before making further plans, but it is right to say that he would have to step up again to justify a July Cup run.”
There is a strong international flavour to the Group One sprint on July 13 with 28 of the entries coming from Australia, the USA, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Norway, France, Ireland as well as South Africa.
The Danny O’Brien-trained Shamexpress is the Australian possible while the USA representative is Havelock, trained by Darrin Miller.
From Hong Kong is the John Moore-trained Time After Time whileKrypton Factor is the Bahrain entry for Fawzi Nass.
