Past Winners » Journey

15th-Oct-2016

I think that there is a good ante post angle into this race, there is a chance that favourite Seventh Heaven will be inconvenienced by easy ground.  Also, Found, Minding and Simple Verse are all possible non-runners.

I am backing Journey.  We had John Gosden’s filly on side in this race last year when she just got run down by Simple Verse close home, and it looks like she has been trained for the race this year.

A close-up third in the Middleton Stakes on her debut this term, she stayed on well to win the Pinnacle Stakes at Haydock on her next run, and she put up a seriously impressive performance to win a listed race at Newmarket last time.

That was only a listed race, but she travelled well through it and she came away from her rivals like a top class filly.  That was the race that she won last year before she went to Ascot, but she may have exerted herself in winning by eight lengths last year.  This year, she won well within herself.  Last year she was just a listed class filly before Ascot, this year connections know that she is better than that, and her performance on the day looked very much like a stepping stone, like it would bring her forward again.

Zhukova is a big danger, and she will appreciate an ease in the ground, but Dermot Weld’s filly is fashionable now, she is a 3/1 shot, whereas Journey is a 7/1 or 8/1 shot.  There is no doubt where the value lies.

JOURNEY WON (ADV 8/1, SP 4/1)