Piccadilly Filly

It is usually an advantage to race against the stands rail up the straight course at The Curragh on fast ground, but the advantage seemed to be more pronounced than usual last weekend. There were six races run on the straight track over the course of the weekend. Amazingly, five of them were won by the horse drawn in stall one, nearest the stands rail, while the other was won by the horse that was drawn in stall two. On top of that, five of the six runners-up and three of the third-placed horses were drawn no higher than four. It should be worthwhile going through the video and picking out horses that ran well out in the middle of the track, because they almost certainly did better than the form book suggests. One such horse was Piccadilly Filly, who did really well to finish a close-up fourth behind Glamorous Spirit in the Group 3 Saphire Stakes on Sunday. Drawn in stall seven, she was away well, and she did manage to move over to get closer to the rail, but the eventual winner had the box seat from stall one, and Piccadilly Filly moved to her right a little when she came under pressure, with the result that she ended up out in the middle of the track. Nevertheless, it was still a huge performance. She did best of the three three-year-olds in the race, she was competing against some hardened experienced sprinters, and she was racing on a disadvantageous part of the track. The first three home, Glamorous Spirit, Reverence and Elnawin, were drawn in stalls one, four and two respectively, all three raced up the near side, and Piccadilly Filly was only beaten a total of two lengths.

A listed race winner last year as a juvenile, Eddie Creighton's filly ran a cracker on her previous start in the Group 2 Prix du Gros-Chene at Chantilly, when she was only just caught by Planet Five and when she had Marchand D'Or, who was admittedly unlucky in-running, a half a length back in third. That was on soft ground, but she handled this fast ground well as well. It is interesting that her trainer thought enough of her to give her an entry in the Nunthorpe, she is a fast filly and she should be under-rated wherever she goes next.

27th June 2010

© The Irish Field, 3rd July 2010

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