Johannesburg leads O'Brien challenge

Last year’s champion two-year-old Johannesburg heads 13 entries from Aidan O’Brien’s stable for the £220,000 (€350,000) Darley July Cup at Newmarket.

After finishing a disappointing eighth in the Kentucky Derby, Johannesburg, is expected to target Europe’s top sprints in a bid to add to his four Group One successes last season.

O’Brien, who has won this Group One contest over six-furlongs twice with Stravinsky (1999) and the ill-fated Mozart (2001), has his 2000 Guineas winners Rock Of Gibraltar (English) and Landseer (French) among his other entries.

Hawk Wing, the unlucky runner-up to Rock Of Gibraltar at Newmarket, has also been put in by the Ballydoyle trainer.

Saeed bin Suroor has six entries for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, including the fourth horse home in the race last year, Three Points, and the well-regarded three-year-olds Meshaheer and Waldenburg.

Sheikh Mohammed has won the race twice in the past with crack sprinters Ajdal (1987) and Soviet Star (1988).

His Darley stud, which has supported the Darley July Cup since 1996 and has just signed a new three-year agreement taking the sponsorship through to 2004, is home to Agnes World, the Japanese colt who won the race in 2000.