The Group I Darley July Cup (5f) was run overnight at Newmarket with the winner Oxsted giving another sire son of Invincible Spirit in Mayson his first Group I winner, whilst also highlighting the merit of his dam sire Choisir.
A progressive four year-old gelding trained by Roger Teal, Oxsted won the Group III Abernant Stakes over the same course and distance in early June with connections electing to bypass Royal Ascot and focus on this race with happy results.
Ridden by Cieren Fallon, Oxsted relished the drying conditions to forge clear and win by a length and a quarter clocking a time just 0.28sec outside the course record.
He gave both his trainer and jockey their first Group I winner.
“It's unbelievable. Harry [Teal's son] has done a fantastic job - he said last week that Oxsted would win the July Cup. We believed, although we knew what we were up against. Cieren rode a peach, he's such a cool little dude,” said Roger Teal.
Retained to race by his breeders, Oxsted has the overall record of four wins and two placings from nine starts and is the first Group I winner for his sire Mayson, who won the July Cup in 2012.
Mayson stands at Cheveley Park at a fee of 5,000 pounds.
Oxtsed is the best of two winners from the handy four time winning Choisir mare Charlotte Rosina, whose immediate family is barren of Black Type.
Interestingly for Australian breeders, Choisir mares have a good record with sons of Invincible Spirit, that nick producing 14 winners from 20 runners including four stakes-winners with Oxsted the first Group I winner and Australian bred Eckstein, a Group III winner that was second in the Group I VRC Myer Classic.
That’s certainly food for thought this season given the plentiful supply of Choisir mares and the choice of no fewer than seven sons of Invincible Spirit at stud here this spring.
