Furia Cruzada
Very weak in the market before the Lancashire Oaks at Haydock last Saturday, Furia Cruzada was last of the six runners from early, which wasn't ideal off the sedate early pace. Moved to the outside two furlongs out, her challenge was delayed until well inside the two-furlong pole, and she closed all the way to the line, but she just couldn't make up all the ground. She finished second, going down by just a half a length to the Godolphin filly Endless Time in the end.
Even though she was weak in the pre-race market, she was still better-fancied than her stable companion Lady Of Camelot, both fillies representing John Gosden, who had sent out the winner of the Lancashire Oaks three times in the previous five years.
A triple Group 1 winner in Argentina, this was just the Newfoundland filly's fourth run for John Gosden, and she had progressed for each of her first three. On her third run for him, she finished second to Usherette in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot, and this run was probably even better than that, given that she was disadvantaged by being held up off a sedate pace.
She should be able to continue to progress now, and she should do even better dropped back in trip to 10 furlongs, the distance over which she recorded those three Group 1 wins in Argentina. The faster pace that they should go over the shorter trip should help her too, and she would be an interesting outsider in the Nassau Stakes if she took up her entry in that.
2nd July 2016
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