Current favorite Rizeena faces 18
rivals in Sunday’s Group 1, £410,000 One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket, but trainer Clive Brittain remains
typically confident that Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum’s versatile bay
daughter of Iffraaj can provide him
with a third renewal and first since Sayyedati in 1993.
Like that past star, Rizeena
proved as potent over sprint trips as she did over farther at two, winning Royal Ascot’s Queen Mary Stakes at a five-furlong trip and Moyglare Stud Stakes
over seven at The Curragh, as well as finishing second to the
ill-fated Chriselliam in the Fillies’ Mile
over Sunday’s track and one-mile trip. Drawn in post 7, she should have cover in what
could be a rough race and her 80-year-old conditioner was offering no
negatives on Friday.
“The draw is not too worrying and the ground
will be perfect as far as I’m concerned,” Brittain told PA Sport. “With
Richard (Hughes) riding, I’ve no lack of confidence in the jockey.
He hasn’t sat on her, but he sat behind her last year and beat her
once, so he knows enough about her.
“Rizeena proved last year that she
was top-class and shows all the signs that she has improved from two to three, just as both
Pebbles and Sayyedati did. Her work has been according to plan, she has done everything we
have asked of her really well and we are going to the Guineas with a very fine chance.
There are 19 runners, so you always think you need a bit of luck but if you’ve got the
best horse you’ll win. That’s the way I look at it.”
There were two notable scratchings at
Friday’s declaration stage, with Prestige Stakes winner Amazing Maria and recent
Fred Darling Stakes scorer J Wonder joining the other
high-profile withdrawal of My Titania. Amazing Maria was
ruled out due to a dirty scope.
“Unfortunately,
Amazing Maria didn’t scope clean this morning and will miss the Guineas,”
trainer Ed Dunlop told Racing Post. “It’s a terrible blow for
her owner Sir Robert Ogden and the staff, but a few of my recent runners have been running
below par. We’re monitoring the situation and we’ll see how she is but she is also in the
French One Thousand Guineas next week and the Irish One Thousand Guineas at the end of the month.”
Lady Cecil
will saddle her first classic runner with Joyeuse bidding to add even more luster to the family of Frankel following the Gordon Richards Stakes success of her other half-brother Noble Mission. Having stayed on late to be third
behind the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-bound J Wonder in
the Fred Darling at Newbury, connections are hoping the Oasis Dream filly has progressed enough to be in
the mix here.
“She’s been straightforward since Newbury and has come on for the run,”
said Teddy Grimthorpe, Khalid Abdullah’s racing manager. “She obviously needs to have
done so, but everyone is happy with her.”
Joyeuse was 3 1/2 lengths adrift of Qatar Racing’s Kiyoshi in Royal Ascot’s Albany Stakes
last June and that filly, who was
subsequently disqualified from second behind Rizeena in the Moyglare and third behind
Vorda in Newmarket’s Cheveley Park Stakes, would be providing some recompense for the
Charlie Hills stable after the loss of Chriselliam.
“Kiyoshi took her racecourse gallop (at the
Craven meeting) in her stride and has really come on for it,” her conditioner said. “She has so
much talent and hopefully her tendancy to hang is a thing of the past.”
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