LYONS HOPING THAT IT ISN’T A BRIDGE TOO FAR
GER LYONS’ unbeaten filly Sacred Bridge puts her flawless record on the line in the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket today.
The two-year- old’s four runs thus far have produced four victories, beginning with a Naas maiden in June and progressing to the Listed Tipperary Stakes later in the same month.
The valuable Ballyhane Stakes was her next success before a step up to Group Three level that was deftly handled when the bay took the Round Tower Stakes last month.
This is another step up and Lyons ( inset) expects the Juddmonteowned daughter of Bated Breath to make the grade after her impressive three- and- threequarter- length triumph at the Curragh.
Favourite
“I see she’s favourite, whatever that means, she’s rocked up four times and won four times,” he said. “I wouldn’t change her for anything.
“What other trainers are doing is their business. My job is to get this filly there on Saturday in good health. If she rocks up and does what she has been doing all summer, then happy days.
“This is her sternest test, she’s stepping into the big leagues now in Group One level and, invariably, they fail — and that’s not to be negative.
“In the Round Tower, I thought the way she did it in Group company was visually spectacular, and it was also fast ground, which, I think, is the
HIGH FIVES: Sacred Bridge ( hopes to make it five wins from five key to her. She’s favourite, as long as she runs well, I’ll take it, but I hope, as always, to win it. She hasn’t let me down yet.
“You live in hope you have a Group One horse, but normally you don’t and you are disappointed a lot of the time. After the Round Tower, I don’t think she’s out of her depth.”
Vying for favouritism behind Sacred Bridge is Andrew Balding’s Sandrine, a three-time winner whose perfect run of form was interrupted when she was beaten a length by Zain Claudette in the Lowther Stakes at York.
Triumph
The daughter of Bobby’s Kitten took her maiden in May, before going on to triumph in the Group Three Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group Two Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket.
“She’s done nothing wrong this year,” said Balding. “It was probably too quick a test, and the draw didn’t work out as we’d have wanted at York.
“She doesn’t have to carry a penalty in this, and she seems in good form.”
Ismail Mohammed’s Zain Claudette is a key challenger after enjoying a hat- trick of successes this term, a winning streak that includes a Newmarket maiden and the Group Three Princess Margaret Keeneland Stakes in addition to the Lowther.
Joseph O’Brien’s Velocidad is looking to bounce back after a below- par effort in the Prix Morny at Deauville.