SALISBURY 2.00, FILLIES’ CONDITIONS STAKES, 2YO, 5F
ITV nips down to Salisbury for this conditions event with nearly £10,000 to the winner, but with just four runners, they may be wondering why they bothered. Three – including the current odds-on favourite, Ollie Sangster’s Piazza – are making their racecourse debuts, and since Sangster is also responsible for Lovethiswayagain, a 14-1 shot currently, that money feels fairly significant. Inexperience is always a concern when a horse sees the track for the first time, though, and Rod Millman’s Anthelia, a very comfortable winner on her debut at Bath in April, seems sure to provide a stern test in a race that, for betting purposes, is probably one to leave alone.
SELECTION: ANTHELIA.
NEWMARKET 1.45, PRETTY POLLY STAKES, LISTED, 3YO, 1M2F
Ralph Beckett’s Likealot is a non-runner here bringing the field down to seven, five of which currently hold an entry in the Oaks at Epsom next month (Anna Swan and Life Is Beautiful are the exceptions). Three remain unbeaten – Trad Jazz, Falakeyah and Sand Gazelle – and the sure-fire favourite is Owen Burrows’s Falakeyah, who is no bigger than 20-1 for next month’s Epsom Classic despite having raced only once, in a minor event at Wolverhampton in November. The pre-race betting suggested that Falakeyah might be a cut above the usual standard of runners on a chilly November evening in the midlands, as she set off as the even-money favourite to beat 10 opponents, and so it proved as Jim Crowley’s mount powered nearly six lengths clear. She is not the only wide-margin winner in the field, though, as Janey Mackers was similarly impressive in a maiden at Doncaster in October while also posting a useful time in the circumstances, and at the likely odds – 9-4 versus 5-1 at this moment – I’d probably prefer to be with David Menuisier’s filly.
SELECTION: JANEY MACKERS.
Hello from Newmarket, where the 1,000 Guineas – the youngest of all the Classics at a sprightly 211 years of age – is due off at 3.35 this afternoon and will feature a much-anticipated head-to-head between Desert Flower and Lake Victoria, who were both unbeaten Group One winners in their two-year-old seasons last year.
It is a meeting too of the two major powers in European racing, as Desert Flower runs for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation – which claimed both the 2,000 Guineas here yesterday and then the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs a few hours later – while Lake Victoria runs for the Flat’s reigning champion trainer, Aidan O’Brien, whose sole runner in yesterday’s Classic finished ninth of 11.
Desert Flower and Lake Victoria head a 10-strong field for today’s Classic, which also includes Duty First, an emphatic winner of Newbury’s Fred Darling Stakes last time out, and Ger Lyons’s Red Letter, who was fourth behind Lake Victoria in last year’s Moyglare Stud Stakes but did not have much luck in running and was still beaten by less than a length-and-a-half. There is an intriguing “dark” horse too in Elwateen, a daughter of Dubawi who has just one run to her name on the all-weather at Kempton last summer.
Elsewhere on the card, a whole host of lightly-raced fillies with an entry in the Oaks at Epsom next month line up for the Pretty Polly Stakes at 1.45, and last year’s 1,000 Guineas winner, Elmalka, is among the runners for the Dahlia Stakes at 2.20.
The Pretty Polly kicks off the proceedings in around an hour’s time, and there will be video form for all the main Classic contenders here on the blog in good time to make a final selection for the big race, along with live coverage of all the news, views and betting moves.
