Key events
Falakeyah has been cut to 8-1 (from 16-1) by Paddy Power for the Oaks, and as short at 5-1 favourite (pending the outcome of the 1,000 Guineas) by Coral.
The only significant question mark is whether she will be as effective at a mile-and-a-half, as she took quite a pull in the early stages before settling better once she was in front. But the early exuberance did not have any noticeable effect at the business end of the race, as she quickened into a three-length lead and then maintained her advantage all the way to the line.
NEWMARKET 1.45 RESULT, PRETTY POLLY STAKES:
1. FALAKEYAH 6-4F, 2. Life Is Beautiful 9-1. 7 ran.
Falakeyah tugs her way to the lead, Life Is Beautiful tracks her with Trad Jazz and Qilin Queen … past halfway, still Falakeyah in front, she was a little keen to start but is settled now … two out, Jim Crowley injects more speed and Falakeyah is pouring it on, she’s three clear hitting the rising ground … Life Is Beautiful staying on but she won’t get there, Falakeyah is a hugely impressive winner at 6-4 and surely now among the favourites for the Oaks!
Off and running in the Pretty Polly Stakes …
Not often you see a seven-runner Group race with no real outsider, this is a field that is brimful of potential and the winner is almost certain to spring close to the top of the Oaks market.
They are going to post for the Pretty Polly Stakes at 1.45, the latest betting is:
9-4 Falakeyah
4-1 Janey Mackers
11-2 Qilin Queen
6-1 Sand Gazelle
6-1 Anna Swan
15-2 Trad Jazz
10-1 Life Is Beautiful
1,000 GUINEAS CONTENDER: DESERT FLOWER
Charlie Appleby’s filly has been the warm favourite for this race ever since her commanding success in last season’s Group One Fillies Mile over the Guineas track and trip, when she strode five-and-a-half lengths clear of Aidan O’Brien’s January.
It was a clear step forward for Desert Flower, who had beaten the same horse by only one-and-a-half lengths in the Group Two May Hill Stakes at Doncaster a few weeks earlier.
Desert Flower’s success was enough to make her the top British-trained juvenile filly of the season, with a rating of 117 in the two-year-old classification, and she will set off at around 11-8 to give her trainer a first win in the Newmarket fillies’ Classic, to sit alongside his three victories in the last four runnings of the 2,000 Guineas.
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.
Preamble
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.
