Betfair Sprint Cup Big Race Verdict: Fanshawe's Blue the one for Haydock gold on Saturday

• Lazzat the Sportsbook favourite for Sprint Group 1 on Saturday

• Two market movers and Kind Of Blue expected to thrive

• Alan Dudman delivers his 1-2-3 verdict for the Betfair Sprint Cup 

Listen to Racing...Only Bettor Betfair Sprint Cup preview

Lazzat the Sportsbook favourite

A maximum field has been declared for Saturday's Group 1 Betfair Sprint Cup with Harry Eustace confirming his Time For Sandals despite one or two reservations about the ground.

Lazzat is clearly the one to beat and can boast Group 1 winning form this summer from the Royal Ascot Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and was subsequently second in the Prix Maurice de Gheest - although he was turned over in that at 1/21.50. He was a previous winner of the Maurice de Gheest.

His Royal Ascot run was right up there with the best of his French form - earning a Timeform figure of 125 and as a confirmed front-runner, stall 10 is the place to shoot and aim from.

Betfair Sportsbook market moves from Thursday

Inisherin was the one who was cut substantially on Thursday with the 16/117.00 gone pretty sharpish when prices went live and Kevin Ryan's sprinter was into 11/112.00.

Ryan is a two-time winner of the race in recent seasons with Emaraty Ana in 2021 and Hello Youmzain in 2019

No Half Measures was also cut from 7/18.00 to 11/26.50, a move that was replicated by both Sayidah Dariyan and Time For Sandals.

How good is the July Cup form?

In a vintage year, we'd be talking about the July Cup winner as a massive player and runner for this, but it's far from a vintage crop and No Half Measures, the scorer at Newmarket, is in to 11/26.50.

She was 66/167.00 that day and beat Big Mojo into second and Run To Freedom was third. Notable Speech was the buzz horse for that and wasn't good enough trying sprinting, and the form as a whole looks ropey.

No Half Measures hasn't been seen since, and she won't mind any of the rain that was forecast floating around on Thursday. But she was beaten at Haydock in a Listed race before the July Cup and her trainer Richard Hughes is quiet at the moment.

As of Thursday morning he was 1-23 at just 4% with Neil Callan 0-20 in the last two weeks.

Run To Freedom is trained by the man who possesses racing's most luxuriant eyebrows in Henry Candy, but the seven-year-old and is operating around 10lb below his form of 2023, for all his third in the July Cup deserved credit. Candy was won the Sprint Cup in both 2015 and 2010 with Markab and Twilight Son.

Sky Majesty is Betfair Sprint Cup up-and-comer

We've been desperate for an up-and-comer for the sprinting ranks all season. No Half Measures could be the one but Sky Majesty has the greatest potential.

She's trained by William Haggas, who won the race 12 months ago with outsider Montassib, and Sky Majesty faces her toughest test to date following wins in Ireland, both at Naas in good and yielding conditions.

The three-year-old in the Tony Bloom livery was an easy winner in the softer ground earlier in the summer, purely on the way she tanked through the race.

She was a Group 2 winner in France last term too, and that was described as her best run by Bloom's racing manager. I get the feeling she will be at her best if it rains.

She's been supplemented to the tune of 20 thousand sheets from Bloom and his algorithms, and they'll find out if she is up to Group 1 level.

I'm sticking with Kind Of Blue and so is the market

In Tuesday's antepost column I really liked the look of the 12s with Kind Of Blue, and I was not in a club of one it seemed as the price soon went into 8/19.00.

We are bordering on just about acceptable now, lower odds would him out of the equation. His second in the race 12 months ago highlighted the very best of him. He travelled ever so well, perhaps too well more towards the front-runner as Montassib was ridden from a lot further back.

His trainer Fanshawe won this race with The Tin Man in 2018, and prior to that Society Rock in 2012, and Kind Of Blue is a close relative of the former. He is also related to the classy Deacon Blues. The family trait of improving from three to four is something to keep in mind with his profile.

You have to completely throw out his run in France earlier this year, as Fanshawe explained: "He had a niggle in the spring which held us up and we had to go to Chantilly for his prep race for Ascot. We wouldn't have gone there if we weren't running out of time to get him to Royal Ascot and that went wrong.

"As things hadn't gone smoothly before the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes and it looked a really tough race this year, we decided to miss that and regroup and go for something else."

That something else could well be this race and he had a decent prep at the Curragh while carrying a Group 1 penalty.

At 15/28.50, he looks the best bet in terms of win purposes with the each-way evaporating before my very eyes.

Betfair Sprint Cup pace map with draws

Front runners: Diligent Harry (stall 9), James's Delight (7), Lazzat (10),

Tracking pace: Beauvatier (5), Diligent Harry (9), Inisherin (6), James's Delight (7), Kind Of Blue (19), My Mate Alfie (17), Big Mojo (15), No Half Measures (14), Rage Of Bamby (13), Sayidah Dariyan (1), Sky Majesty (12), Time For Sandals (2),

Mid-division: Annaf (4), Run To Freedom (11),

Hold-up: Annaf (4) , Ain't Nobody (3), Big Mojo (15), Flora Of Bermuda (16), Sayidah Dariyan (1).

Alan Dudman's 1-2-3 Betfair Sprint Cup verdict

Lazzat has to be in the 1-2-3 on his Royal Ascot run, as since then he has dropped to sprinting and over 6f is hard to fault. This will be a speedier six than Ascot, though, and while he can make the running, there's a possibility of a bit of outpacing and I fancy Kind Of Blue has more natural speed.

In terms of a third spot. Inisherin has Haydock winning form as he landed the Sandy Lane here last May and was brilliant in the subsequent Commonwealth Cup.

Since then, it's been a career of disappointments. While he won the Clipper at York on reappearance, he was well beaten down the centre behind Lazzat at Ascot and raced alone on the stands' rail in France last time and it was goodnight Vienna, or Paris.

He has form on soft and good to firm.

1) Kind Of Blue
2) Lazzat
3) Inisherin

Now read Alan's verdict on two other Saturday races in his antepost tipping column