ITV Racing tips: fancied Santa Barbara could have most to fear from Sacred and Fev Rover in 1000 Guineas
ITV Racing tips: fancied Santa Barbara could have most to fear from Sacred and Fev Rover in 1000 Guineas
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It’s ladies day on the Rowley Mile where the fillies get to strut their stuff in the 1000 Guineas and, if the market is right, Santa Barbara is the one to beat.
Aidan O’Brien has won four of the last five runnings of the fillies’ Classic, Minding and Love among them, and if he is to be believed he is about to unleash another special talent at Newmarket.
With her closest rival in the ante-post betting, son Joseph’s Pretty Gorgeous, not declared in the 12-runner field, a victory for Santa Barbara could make her the shortest priced winner of the race this century, should her odds contract further.
Among those trying to stop her will be her own stablemate Mother Earth, the mount of Frankie Dettori, Cheveley Park and Fred Darling winner Alcohol Free, and Sacred, who captured the Nell Gwyn Stakes.
The 1000 Guineas will be the highlight of seven races on ITV, which will also feature the Pretty Polly Stakes and Dahlia Stakes, plus two races from Hamilton and one from Salisbury.
It all unfolds from 13:30pm on ITV and we have previewed the three most significant races of the day in our ITV Racing tips.
Newmarket’s only recognised Oaks trial, won by the likes of Talent and Taghrooda, features three fillies holding entries in the Epsom Classic.
Godolphin’s A’Shaari is the sister of Group 1 winner Wuheida, and winner of the Dahlia Stakes on this card two years ago, who won her only start on the July course last August.
Alba Rose brings Group form having finished third in the Rockfel Stakes, but the best option could be one of the maidens in the field, Sea Karats.
If the colours are familiar, they belong to the owners of the great Sea The Stars. She is the sister of Al Aasy, who bolted up in the John Porter Stakes, two days after Sea Karats made her debut at Newbury where she met trouble in running which probably cost her a first time victory. This is her chance to atone.
Older fillies and mares come to the fore for this 1m1f race, in which Sir Michael Stoute’s Queen Power looks set to go off favourite.
Stoute has few peers at improving horses as they get older but so far Queen Power’s transfer from the care of Ralph Beckett after her two-year-old season has not reaped the rewards that may have been anticipated. She has added only one victory in a Listed contest, in which she beat Lavender’s Blue, while she has been a beaten favourite four times.
That could well be the case again with Posted, whose odds do not reflect the fact she is the highest rated horse in the race on official figures, taken to continue last year’s upward progression.
If Aidan O’Brien is correct in his assessment of Santa Barbara then the rest of the field will be racing for place money.
There is not much else to go on in weighing up the credentials of Santa Barbara. She is beautifully bred, as nearly all Ballydoyle runners are, and has only raced once, easily winning a Curragh maiden by two and a half lengths in September.
Her short odds are entirely due to O’Brien’s glowing reports on the filly. Her price collapsed when he talked her up in a stable tour and his enthusiasm hasn’t waned since, this week describing her work as “very, very good” and “always dominating”, adding, “Anything she works with, she always looks to be going easiest – no matter what horse.”
Lack of experience will be the main concern against a considerably stronger field than she has met so far. She is probably no betting proposition but there could be each way value to be found in Sacred and Fev Rover.
Ryan Moore expressed stamina doubts about Sacred after she beat Saffron Beach over 7f in the Nell Gwyn which trainer William Haggas does not yet share. Fev Rover won at Group 2 level last year and didn’t get much of a run when beaten in the Marcel Boussac at a mile on heavy ground. If Santa Barbara does have any chinks, they could be the ones to expose them.
