The all-weather forecast is good for Chester trials
Prepping classic contenders on the all-weather is quite the thing these days. Outsiders Notable Speech and Elmalka, the respective winners of the 2000 and 1000 Guineas at the weekend, cut their teeth on synthetic surfaces at Kempton and Southwell. And they were not the first to go that route.
Now we are into the final round of Derby and Oaks auditions with longestablished Epsom trials featuring on the opening day of Chester’s popular fixture. And unlike in days gone by, most of the main protagonists in both the Cheshire Oaks and Chester Vase have already made an impression on the sand this spring.
An exception is Grosvenor Square, favourite to become an 11th Vase winner for Aidan O’Brien. He has his first outing since winning a heavy-ground Group Three at Leopardstown last autumn and the best is probably yet to come.
But all five of his opponents today have been getting match-fit on the all-weather, including his stable companion Agenda, who looked pretty smart himself when winning a Dundalk maiden. Ryan Moore has understandably chosen to partner Grosvenor Square, but he doesn’t always pick right.
Then there’s Cadogan Place and Hidden Law. There was just a short head between them on their debuts at Southwell and that form was boosted when the latter then bolted up on the Newbury turf.
It’s a similar scenario in the Cheshire Oaks, though this time Aidan’s son Joseph trains the favourite, Grand Dame, who beat his dad’s reopposing Rubies Are Red emphatically in a Leopardstown maiden last month.
O’Brien Snr also runs Port Fairy and she’s Moore’s choice after scrambling home on Dundalk’s Polytrack.
Then there’s Forest Fairy. Her trainer Ralph Beckett has a way with the fillies, having won the Epsom Oaks twice with Look Here (2008) and Talent (2013) and the St Leger with Simple Verse, who beat the colts in 2015.
Forest Fairy, a stoutly-bred daughter of the Arc winner Waldgeist, is his latest exciting female classic prospect. She was distinctly green when making her debut on Wolverhampton’s Tapeta track in February, but that didn’t stop her sprinting six lengths clear of the field. That earned her a 20-1 quote for the Oaks at the end of this month and she’ll be a deal shorter than that if she can send today’s Irish visitors packing.
It is, though, a bit early to be talking about a Chester-Epsom double. The last filly to pull that off was Enable (2017), who, by the way, was thwarted in her bid for a record third Arc victory two years later by Waldgeist.