Up, up and away for Politicise
HIGH NOON for this season’s top two-year-olds looks like taking place at Deauville next month now that Karl Burke has set his sights on the Prix Morny with Dandalla after landing the Bet365 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket yesterday.
The Group One prize is also the likely target of The Queen’s July Stakes winner Tactical, trained by Andrew Balding, Clive Cox’s Coventry Stakes winner Nando Parrado, Michael Bell’s The Lir Jet, winner of the Norfolk Stakes, and possibly Wesley Ward’s US speedster Campanelle.
Dandalla, emphatic winner of the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, had to dig much deeper to hold Fev Rover by a head yesterday under jockey Ben Curtis.
But Burke cited unsuitable ground and a glitch in Dandalla’s preparation to mark up the performance, as well as drawing favourable comparisons with his sixtime Group-One winning filly Laurens.
He said: ‘Dandalla is a highquality filly and Ben was adamant that the tacky ground did not help her. It wasn’t plain sailing going into the race. We had a small issue about 10 days ago when she had a slight temperature and we took a little bit of a chance but we got away with it. She has had three quick runs. We will give her a bit of time and then prep her for the Prix Morny. It makes sense now to have a crack at the boys in the Group One.’
PJ McDonald, who rode Laurens in most of her races, had a landmark of his own to celebrate when securing his 1,000th British winner on Zabeel Champion in the Bet365 Handicap.
The Falmouth Stakes, feature Group One on the middle day of the July Meeting, went to trainer John Gosden but not how most expected. It was 9-2 shot Nazeef, ridden by Jim Crowley, who held off Billesdon Brook by a neck, with the winner’s odds-on stablemate Terrebellum and Frankie Dettori a neck further back.
Overseas action this weekend revolves around Pinatubo’s attempt to get back to winning ways as he drops back to seven furlongs from a mile in tomorrow’s Group One Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.