Published 7 October 2026. Analysis and views here are our opinion,
not a guarantee of anything. 18+, please gamble responsibly.
The Dubai Future Champions Festival runs on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile on Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October. Both days start at 1.15pm UK time. Friday’s feature is the Group 1 bet365 Fillies’ Mile at 2.57pm. Saturday has the Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes at 3pm and the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch, two and a quarter miles of Heritage Handicap, at 3.40pm. The Dewhurst often settles who heads the 2,000 Guineas betting over the winter, and this year it looks like a straight fight between the two horses at the head of both Classic markets.
Saturday: the Dewhurst
Seven horses stood their ground at Monday’s confirmation stage, and all but one belong to Godolphin or Ballydoyle. Charlie Appleby has Desert Castle and Jassas, Aidan O’Brien has Darkness Falls, Great Barrier Reef and Raging Bull, Roger Varian trains Rock Montreal for Godolphin, and Andrew Balding’s Gentle Hurricane is the only outsider to the two big operations.
Desert Castle is the reason the race has drawn so much attention. The unbeaten Frankel colt won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in September by three lengths at Evens, and that made him favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas. The last horse to win the Champagne and the Dewhurst in the same season was Chaldean in 2022, and he went on to win the Guineas. Darkness Falls is the other half of the story. The Camelot colt won the new Group 1 Golden Fleece Stakes at Leopardstown and went to the top of the Derby betting for it. Great Barrier Reef, a Royal Ascot winner, steps up to seven furlongs.
Saturday: the Cesarewitch
The Cesarewitch is the second leg of the autumn double after the Cambridgeshire, worth £175,000, and 42 horses were still in it at Monday’s stage. Ian Williams’ Beylerbeyi is the defending champion and the favourite. He won it last year off 8st 11lb and carries 9st 4lb this time. That matters, because nine of the last ten winners carried 9st 2lb or less, Stratum in 2019 being the exception. Joseph O’Brien’s Galileo Dame, third in the Irish Cesarewitch, has 8st 9lb, and Willie Mullins’ Sirius, second in the same race, has 8st 7lb off a rating of 90. Only two of the last ten favourites have won it, and three of the last ten winners started at 14/1 or bigger.
Friday: the Fillies’ Mile
Twelve fillies were left in the Fillies’ Mile at the latest stage. Musical Times heads the betting at around 1/2, with Rogue Passion, who won the Group 2 Prix d’Aumale at Longchamp last month, the 3/1 second favourite. O’Brien has Exceptionally and So Lovely among the outsiders. The winner gets £283,550, and past winners include Minding in 2015 and Laurens in 2017.
What looks the smart angle
We have not been able to source a winner market from one of our partner bookmakers for these races, so there is no odds block on this page. The prices below are attributed to whoever published them.
Desert Castle was 8/11 with Paddy Power for the Dewhurst at the start of the week. That is a short price in a seven-runner Group 1 that includes the Derby favourite, and the case against him is simply that Darkness Falls has already won at the top level and he has not. The case for him is the Doncaster performance and an unbeaten record. If you think Darkness Falls’ Leopardstown form is the stronger, he is the one who can beat the favourite.
The Cesarewitch is the more interesting betting race. Beylerbeyi was a 4/1 favourite on Monday and around 9/2 by Tuesday, with Kirchner at 8/1 and Sea Lantern at 10/1. A defending champion who has gone up 7lb, against a trend that nine of the last ten winners defied, is the sort of favourite that is easy to oppose in a big field. Galileo Dame and Sirius both come out of the Irish Cesarewitch with lighter weights. All of this is opinion on the prices as they stood early in the week, not a tip, and declarations and the ground can change the picture before the off.
Elsewhere
On Friday the first Test between South Africa and Australia starts in Durban. Saturday’s Premier League card has Manchester United against Tottenham at 5.30pm, and on Sunday the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Philadelphia Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before Liverpool host Manchester City.
The sportsbook offers for a Newmarket weekend
Ad: Betfred’s bet £10, get £50 in free bets is the biggest package of the three, and it pays £30 in sports free bets and £20 in Bet Builder free bets within 24 hours of the qualifying bet settling. That bet has to be £10 or more at Evens (2.0) or bigger, so Desert Castle at 8/11 would not qualify, while anything in the Cesarewitch at the prices above would. You have to deposit by debit card, and the free bets last seven days.
William Hill’s bet £10, get £30 in free bets sets the bar at 1/2, which an 8/11 favourite clears. It needs promo code R30 and a £10 first deposit, and pays three £10 free bets that expire after seven days. PayPal, Skrill, NETELLER, Apple Pay and several other deposit methods are excluded. Virgin Bet’s welcome offer also uses a 1/2 bar and gives you 14 days from registering to place the £10+ qualifying bet, then pays £20 in free bets plus 2 x £5 Bet Builder tokens. The Bet Builder tokens need a single selection at Evens or bigger.
Between races, Virgin Bet runs 100 free spins on Eye of Horus and 100 free spins on King Kong Cash Even Bigger Bananas 2, both paying winnings as cash with no cap. William Hill’s 50 free spins on Mining Pots of Gold needs code M50 and a £10 stake. The spins expire 24 hours after issue and the most you can withdraw is £30, which makes it the tighter of the three.
If you want to take on the Cesarewitch favourite, claim the Betfred welcome offer here, where a big-priced handicapper is exactly the kind of bet that qualifies.
