Plenty of top-class horses have raced at Yarmouth at the outset of their careers, but it is only very rarely that the track tempts any runners to the Norfolk coast once their rating is 110-plus, never mind two in the same race.
Such is their good fortune this afternoon, however, as Arabian Queen, who beat Golden Horn, the Derby winner, to win the Group One International Stakes at York last summer lines up against So Mi Dar, who took the Musidora Stakes, also at York, back in May and was briefly favourite for the Oaks before in injury intervened.
It seems a little hard on the promising Rostova and Nezwaah, who have both shown Group-class potential and might, in any other year, have been vying for favouritism. It is hard to see beyond the big two, however, and while Arabian Queen can be a very difficult horse to pass at this sort of level, So Mi Dar (3.25) looked like a filly who would progress to be one of the best of her generation at York. Even with a penalty to carry for that success, it will be disappointing if she cannot pick up the threads of her season here.
Princess Momoka (2.50) has shown glimmers of promise in three starts in maidens and has scope for significant improvement now that she goes handicapping earlier on the same card.
Yorker (3.50) returned from a much longer layoff than So Mi Dar’s to run second behind Scottish in the Group Three Strensall Stakes last month, and the three-time Grade One winner in South Africa faces a much less strenuous assignment today.
Acrux (5.00), a half-brother to the Derby runner-up Main Sequence, begins his handicapping career on a fair mark after winning a maiden at Wolverhampton with something in hand last time out, while Maestro Mac (3.30) has been coming along steadily this season and could record his first win of the campaign as he steps up to a mile-and-a-half.
We are no longer able to continue with competitions every week, but they will still run in the biggest weeks (Cheltenham, Aintree, Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and maybe one or two others, as well as the Christmas quiz).
We’ll still have a Talking Horses each day for tips, analysis and news, so we very much hope you’ll join us to chew over whatever racing happens to be going on and post your tips or racing-related comments below.
