Now that the vast majority of the Classics and the high-pressure events of Royal Ascot are recent history, racing's summer loosens up a touch with Newmarket's July Festival next on the endless circling timeline. What those amazing hardwoods in the pre-parade ring could tell you, looming over decades of choice thoroughbreds and interactions, hushed awe and nervous tension. The meeting's agenda reads like a mini-Saratoga and is Newmarket's finest week of the year.While Saturday's G1 Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai July Cup is the key race, the July Festival is really about the two-year-olds. No sooner is the Derby run, the radar is already out for next year's kingpins and they have a habit of showing up here. Saturday's G2 Superlative Stakes has hosted City Of Troy, Native Trail, Master Of The Seas and Dubawi since the turn of the century and may have another special one this year in Abraham Lincoln (Wootton Bassett). The Curragh winner is held in high regard at Ballydoyle and with his big name could be on his way to the top.Thursday's opening day boasts the G2 Kingdom of Bahrain July Stakes, the week's six-furlong two-year-old feature where Charlie Appleby looks to turn the page with his exciting Inner City Blues (Blue Point). On a big day for the stable, with the favourite in all three of the Group races, he is the key member of the cast representing the future at a time when the present isn't too rosy.Won by the likes of Green Desert, Noverre, Shalaa and Mehmas, this isn't a race that favours one with such little experience but last year Zavateri showed it could be done with the right raw material. Smart on debut at York, the top-priced colt of the Arqana May Breeze-Up carries a weight of expectation from his team. “We feel he has stepped forward since York and hopefully will take a bit of beating,” Appleby said.On Friday, the juvenile fillies have their chance to shine in the G2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, which is the old Cherry Hinton captured by the luminaries Mysterious, Diminuendo and Attraction and countless others who also hit the heights. Libertango (No Nay Never) looks to emulate last year's winner Venetian Sun in following up her success in the Albany and Vefa Ibrahim Araci's 400,000gns Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up purchase will be a warm order to do so.Before the Superlative on Saturday, the Rossdales British EBF Maiden Stakes takes place with both recent and past history suggesting it is one of Europe's more important races of its kind. Restricted to just colts, the old “Strutt & Parker Maiden” has been won by Alhaarth, Bahhare, Dubai Destination, Rio De La Plata and Field Of Gold. Twelve months ago, Distant Storm edged Constitution River in a photo and it is anybody's guess what we'll see this time.At present, William Buick is jocked up on Charlie Appleby's newcomer Al Wathba (Wootton Bassett), a €900,000 Arqana Deauville August purchase while Aidan O'Brien has entered three. They are Haffner (Justify), runner-up to Abraham Lincoln on debut; and Oklahoma (Wootton Bassett) and Shakespeare (Dubawi) who chased home Giant Sequoia also at The Curragh.Thursday's card sees Appleby unveil Peaceful Charm (Dubawi), the €2million Arqana Deauville August sensation in the seven-furlong fillies' maiden he has won in five of the last nine years. The subsequent 1,000 Guineas heroine Desert Flower was the latest and best of them and this relative of Magic Wand, Chicquita and Diamond Necklace is one of the meeting's most exciting propositions.Away from the two-year-olds, the July Cup will witness the attempt of Venetian Sun (Starman) to conquer the colts again and her elders for the first time, with Habibti in 1983 the last of her age and sex to prevail in the six-furlong feature. A daughter of the 2021 July Cup hero, Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy's Prix Morny and Commonwealth Cup heroine was the subject of a positive bulletin from Karl Burke on Wednesday.“Saturday will be a tough race, certainly the toughest sprint she's been in, taking on the older horses–she's got to step up again, but she looks fantastic,” he said. “She did a real good piece of work at the end of last week and did a little breeze yesterday. She did show a little bit in season yesterday, which we've never really noticed with her before, so we'll keep an eye on that but she hasn't been showing any signs this morning, so hopefully that's nothing.”“I don't think it was three weeks between Ascot and the race she ran in at this meeting last year–it came a little bit quick on her and maybe she was in front a little bit too soon as well when she nearly got collared by the Lowther winner of Ed Walker's. I'm not worried about the ground and I'm not worried about the course. I'm sure they'll put plenty of water on and it will be very safe. I think, potentially, Venetian Sun still could prove herself to be a superstar.”Of the older horses, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes one-two Almeraq (Dark Angel) and Satono Reve (Lord Kanaloa) stand out along with Ballydoyle's King Charles III Stakes winner Mission Central (No Nay Never), who bids to become Aidan O'Brien's sixth winner for the outright record. Friday's highlight is the G1 Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Falmouth Stakes, where another Ballydoyle raider looms ominously in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes heroine Precise (Starspangledbanner). Juddmonte's Duke of Cambridge Stakes winner Blue Bolt (Blue Point) looks the most obvious threat with the 1,000 Guineas winner, with True Love (No Nay Never) instead heading to Sunday's G1 Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Prix Jean Prat.Deauville's seven-furlong highlight has nine remaining entries, with The Aga Khan Studs leaving options open for their Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Rayif (Sea The Moon) and Fozzy Stack taking aim with the Jersey winner Thesecretadversary (St Mark's Basilica). Elsewhere at the weekend, Ascot's G2 Juddmonte Summer Mile features a rematch between Night Of Thunder's Queen Anne second and fourth More Thunder and Zeus Olympios, just one of many talking points during a fascinating four days of action.The post Future Prospects Best Of The July Delights appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.