July Festival ante-post tip: 14-1 shot looks set for a big run
By Alex Scott
Last Updated: Mon 22 Jun 2026
Royal Ascot may be over for another year, but the remainder of the summer's big Festivals are fast approaching on Racing TV, with the Coral-Eclipse taking place at Sandown on Saturday week, quickly followed by the July Festival, Glorious Goodwood, Galway and the York Ebor Festival.
Newmarket's Debenhams-sponsored July Festival is little over two weeks away and there are several races already priced up. The horse that appeals most at the current odds, however, is not in the Falmouth Stakes, or in the July Cup, but in the bet365 Bunbury Cup, a heritage handicap over a mile.
That horse is the Ian Williams-trained Aalto, who has had a luckless campaign so far but is extremely well-handicapped and tends to save his best for Newmarket on the second Saturday in July.
Watch: Aalto was a scintillating winner of the bet365 Bunbury Cup two years ago off a mark of 88. He is currently rated just 85.
A comfortable winner of this race in 2024 off a mark of 88, he has not won since, but finished second in last year's renewal off 92, finishing just a nose behind last week's Queen Anne runner-up More Thunder in receipt of 6lb.
Since that second-placed effort, he has disappointed according to the form book, but dip below the surface and he has had several legitimate excuses. He finished just three lengths behind Bullet Point in the Clipper Handicap at York last August when Billy Loughnane had to sit and suffer, (off a mark of 96), and he was slowly away and given plenty to do at Kempton in November when never landing a blow.
His reappearance effort in the Victoria Cup was a decent one, and he was then well-backed in the lead-up to his latest effort at York a week and a half ago, but again found a wall of horses in front of him and was sensibly eased down by Ryan Moore when his chance had gone and the impressive winner Extremely Zain had shot clear to win easily.
The son of Zelzal will need things to fall right for him and will need plenty to come out of this race to get in, but if he does get into the race, he is too well-handicapped to ignore in a race which has undoubtedly been his main aim this season by his shrewd target trainer. The best-priced 14-1 could look very big in two weeks' time.
July Festival ante-post selections:
bet365 Bunbury Cup: AALTO at 14-1 with bet365, Ladbrokes and Coral.
Alex Scott
Finished: 1stSP: 4/1
Already advised (June 21):
Al Basti, Equiworld July Cup: VENETIAN SUN at 11-4
Alex Scott
Finished: 2ndSP: 6/1
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