A review of the pick of the action from Newmarket on Sunday as Friendly Soul won the Pretty Polly to tee up a tilt at the Prix de Diane.
France in mind for Pretty Polly winner
Friendly Soul gave John and Thady Gosden back-to-back victories in the William Hill Pretty Polly Stakes, the daughter of Kingman making every yard of the running under Kieran Shoemark.
Friendly Soul proved relatively easy to back in light of strong support for recent Craven meeting winner Kalpana, who was sent off the 4/6 favourite under Oisin Murphy, but Andrew Balding's filly had to settle for second as the 10/1 winner stayed on strongly to score by a length and a quarter.
There was a further 12 lengths back to the third, 22/1 shot Kitteridge.
Friendly Soul is not yet entered in the Betfred Oaks but is in the Ribblesdale and the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, Sky Bet making her 16s (from 33s) for the Coronation.
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John Gosden said: “I think it was a good race. Our other filly (Strutting) was fourth – I think she is more of a staying filly. I was impressed with the second when she won here at the Craven Meeting. I think it was a solid race today as the front two drew away from the field.
“She is a lovely filly and I think she is a mile and a quarter filly. She won’t be an Epsom filly but we might make a visit to Chantilly (for the French Oaks)."
Shoemark is in his first season as number one jockey at the Gosden’s Clarehaven Stables after Frankie Dettori’s move to the US. And Gosden added: “I was feeling for Frankie last night as he had a rather tough night at Churchill Downs! Frankie was obviously a great pal and we had years together – he casts a long shadow.
“But we are very happy with Kieran. He has waited quietly and had some rides for us last year. He is our number one jockey now. He rode out for me as a schoolkid when he used to come in the school holidays and he's always been very natural. His uncle (Peter), who is our racing officer manager, took him home and managed to break his collarbone on a pony messing around!
"He is a very talented rider with superb hands and is a good judge. He is bright, intelligent and a proper horseman.
“We’ve had a slow spring as it’s been wet and cold, so I haven’t been in a hurry with the horses. We hope May is the time when they really start coming to themselves."
Alert all the way to the line
Stay Alert came home strongly to beat Running Lion in the Group 2 William Hill Dahlia Stakes.
Oisin Murphy kicked Running Lion into a clear lead over two furlongs from home after taking it up from Heartache Tonight and she traded at the minimum 1.01 on the Betfair Exchange, but David Egan kept his cool on the eventual winner, who handled the dip beautifully as Running Lion began to falter and wander a little to her left under pressure.
Stay Alert remained straight and true, ultimately coming home three and a half lengths clear of the Gosden filly, with a further five and a half lengths back to Caernarfon (7/1) in third.
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Winning trainer Hughie Morrison said: “We looked after her as a young horse and tried not to run her on fast ground as she’s quite heavy topped, but she’s always had a serious engine.
“The family has always stayed so we imagined she’d get a mile and a half, but I’d probably say a mile and a quarter is her perfect trip now.
“She was going to be retired, but Ben and Sir Martin (Arbib, owners) decided at the last minute they’d have another go. I actually said they ought to retire her because she’s such a beautiful broodmare prospect. I’m very sorry they aren’t here, but I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.
“David said he was always going to pick up the other filly (Running Lion), he just didn’t want to go for it in the dip. I said to him ‘if you’re in contention hitting the rising ground, you’ll win’.
“I suppose the obvious race to run in is the Pretty Polly (Curragh), in which we were a very unlucky second last year, but she does want decent ground.
“We’ll probably aim pretty high now, we’ll probably look at entering her in the Eclipse and races like that because if it’s soft in Ireland you probably want to go for the Eclipse.
“On her day she’s a very good horse and you’ve got to look at everything. I’m a great believed five-year-olds have an advantage over four-year-olds as they must improve.”
Ferguson bags valuable handicap
James Ferguson will work back from the Sky Bet Ebor with Bague d’Or after he kicked off his campaign with victory in the £100,000 William Hill Handicap.
A four-time winner for the now retired Chris Wall, the six-year-old only ran twice during his first season for Ferguson last year, finishing second at York and fourth at Doncaster.
He was a 6/1 for his reappearance and after seeing out the one-mile-six-furlong trip strongly to score by a length and three-quarters from Vaguely Royal under Mickael Barzalona, a return to York for the £500,000 Ebor on August 25 is unsurprisingly a high summer objective.
Bague D'or (right) beats Vaguely Royal and Intinso
“He’s done it well, we always knew he was a horse that runs well fresh as he ran well last year after a long lay-off and he’s been thriving at home,” said Ferguson.
“He’s quite a big set horse and I thought he might just come on for the run but he’s done it well, Mickael has given him a lovely ride and a low weight (8st 9lb) has certainly helped him today.
“He clearly stays all day and we’re lucky the weather has stayed dried all weekend as for a Belardo he loves fast ground.
“Obviously with a horse like that you’ve got to work back from the Ebor, but we’ll just see what the handicapper does. York is a lovely track and he ran well there last year, but it’s a long season ahead and we’ll see how he comes out of the race.”
Rest of the action...
Mountain Breeze appears to have earned herself a place on Charlie Appleby’s Royal Ascot squad after making a winning debut. Plenty was expected of the daughter of Lope De Vega in the Tattersalls £40,000 EBF Fillies’ Novice Stakes, with punters sending her off a well backed 7/4 favourite.
A half-sister to Appleby’s former star colt Pinatubo, Mountain Breeze travelled strongly throughout the five-furlong contest in the hands of William Buick and picked up smartly out of the dip to score by two and three-quarter lengths from fellow newcomer River Seine.
Appleby said: “I’m very pleased, we came here with plenty of confidence, she’s obviously a half to Pinatubo and her homework had been good. Will said it was her class that got her through as she hated every bit of the track. He just held on to her and he said once he levelled off she was always going to pick up and she did that well.
“She’s probably just booked her ticket to Ascot, we’re looking towards the Albany and I might give her another spin beforehand, just for a bit of experience more than anything.”
Richard Hannon was pleased to get on the winner’s board after The Actor (11/4) confirmed debut promise in the Tattersalls £40,000 EBF Novice Stakes.
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An eyecatching second on his debut at the Craven meeting three weeks ago, the Harry Angel colt went one better with a neck verdict over Tropical Storm.
Hannon, who on Saturday saddled Rosallion and Haatem to finish second and third in the 2000 Guineas, said of The Actor: “He’s a tough little horse and he’s improved for that first start and I think he’ll be a bit better over six (furlongs). It’s nice to get a winner as it was getting frustrating.
“Obviously at this time of year you’re trying to get a team together for Royal Ascot and he’s definitely a two-year-old you’ve just got to keep on top of mentally. He was a little bit naughty down at the start today Sean (Levey) was saying, but he’s done the job well so I’m pleased with that.”
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