Talking Horses: Living Legend can shine at Newmarket’s July Festival

The Group Two Princess of Wales’s Stakes, the feature event on the opening afternoon of Newmarket’s July Festival, has not attracted a double-figure field since 2007 but it has been a difficult race for the punters all the same, with just one winning favourite since 2003.

The latest six-runner renewal could be another trappy contest, as Yibir and Mostahdaf dominate the betting but neither arrives with cast-iron credentials. Yibir has failed to add to his win in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf in three attempts this season and lost several lengths with a very slow start at Belmont Park last time, while Mostahdaf made no real impression on the well-ridden Broome at Royal Ascot last time and might yet prove to be best at a slightly shorter trip.

There is not much obvious pace in the race either but Living Legend (3.35), the third-favourite at around 10-1, beat Yibir under similar circumstances in the Jockey Club Stakes at the Guineas meeting and Ryan Moore, who steps in for the injured Joe Fanning on Mark and Charlie Johnston’s runner, could get an easy time of it on the lead. He looks the pick of the stable’s two contenders as the Johnston yard seeks a third win in this race in the last four years, and a seventh in all.

Newmarket 1.50 The form of last month’s Derby has been franked a couple of times already, in particular when Westover, third home at Epsom, romped away with the Irish equivalent at the Curragh, and there could well be another boost here with Masekela and Walk Of Stars both prominent in the betting.They were separated by more than 60 lengths at Epsom, with Masekela outrunning his 66-1 starting price to finish fourth while Walk Of Stars, a 12-1 shot, was tailed off and last of the 17 runners, but he had