Aidan O’Brien will pass £4.5m in prize-money for the 2017 season if Roly Poly (3.35) wins the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket on Friday, and will also register his 11th Group One success of the year, an remarkable total when you consider that the success of Alice Springs in the same race last year was O’Brien’s sixth of the campaign. John Gosden, his closest pursuer, has yet to pass £2m in prize money in Britain this year, and has landed only a single Group 1 success.
It is turning into another record-breaking season for O’Brien, and while Roly Poly is not the best filly ever to pass through O’Brien’s hands – that honour could well belong to Minding, the seven-time Group One winner whose retirement due to injury was announced on Thursday evening – the form of her second place behind Winter in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot would probably be enough to get her home today.
Quicker ground seemed to bring the best out of Roly Poly last time after creditable runs in both the French and Irish 1,000 Guineas and conditions will suit her again this afternoon. The returning Wuheida, unraced since winning the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc day last year, could easily be a Group One winner at some stage, it may be beyond her this afternoon on just her third start and after a 285-day break.
O’Brien also fields the favourite for the Group Two Duchess of Cambridge Stakes in Clemmie, a full-sister to this year’s 2,000 Guineas winner, Churchill. She was an impressive winner at The Curragh on Irish Derby weekend, but whether her form there makes her a worthy favourite to beat Nyaleti, the runner-up in the Chesham at Royal Ascot, is arguable. Nyaleti drops back a furlong here, but has a pound or two in hand of the favourite on their form to date and Mark Johnston, her trainer, saddled Cardsharp, a horse with a similar profile, to win the Group 2 juvenile contest at Newmarket on Thursday.
Marzouq (3.00) has looked a likely winner several times already this season without quite managing to get over the line, most recently at Goodwood where he got to the lead but then edged left and was forced to settle for second place. He may just be one of those horses that always finds a way to lose, but the step up to 10 furlongs today could bring further improvement and I’vegotthepower, the horse that beat him at Goodwood, was a winner next time out.
Dragons Tail (2.50) had no luck in running in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot but stayed on well to finish seventh, about five lengths behind the winner. He is handily weighted on that form as he steps up to six furlongs at Ascot this afternoon, while the consistent Getback In Paris (3.25) is a fair price to beat Mount Moriah on the same card and Visitant (3.45) is a solid favourite on the card at York.
Friday tips
Ascot 2.15 Faraasah 2.50 Dragons Tail (nap) 3.25 Getback In Paris 4.00 Stoney Broke 4.35 Atletico 5.10 Abatement 5.40 Mamilliust
Carlisle 6.05 Kiwi Bay 6.35 Ingenuity 7.05 Computable 7.35 Star Of Zaam 8.10 Call Me Grumpy 8.45 Cliff Bay 9.20 Thorntoun Care
Chepstow 5.45 Distant High 6.15 Listen Alexander 6.45 Quantum Dot 7.15 Zambezi Queen 7.50 Indian Affair 8.25 Carol 9.00 Swilly Sunset
Musselburgh 5.55 See Vermont 6.25 Queen’s Sargent 6.55 Soldier In Action 7.25 Longroom 8.00 Inglorious 8.35 Dominating 9.10 Percy Verence
Newmarket 1.50 Parfait 2.25 Nyaleti 3.00 Marzouq (nb) 3.35 Roly Poly 4.10 Elysium Dream 4.45 Dukhan 5.20 Falcon Eye 5.50 Dr Julius No
York 2.05 One Minute 2.40 Night Of Glory 3.15 Clem Fandango 3.45 Visitant 4.20 Funkadelic 4.55 Lapilli 5.30 Pennsylvania Dutch
