Shaool
Shaool
14th-Sept-2025
Akecheta was top of my list for the Northfields Handicap, but she wasn’t declared on Friday. Hopefully she is okay, and we will get her again before the end of the season, now that the ground has come in her favour.
In her absence, I am backing another filly in Shaool. Johnny Murtagh’s filly has been nicely progressive this season, her first with her current trainer. She was impressive in winning a handicap at Leopardstown in July on soft ground, and she stepped forward from that next time at Killarney when she finished third behind subsequent Group 3 winner Elana Osario on soft ground over almost a mile and a half off a mark of 85.
She travelled really well into her race that day, and she did well to get as close as she did from mid-division off a sedate pace, as evidenced by the winner’s finishing speed of over 109% of overall speed. Also, she had to challenge on the far side, probably on the worst of the ground. She went down by just a head and a neck to Paddy Twomey’s filly, who is now rated 15lb higher than she was then.
Shaool is now rated 85, just 1lb higher than she was then. She has run twice since, and she can be marked up on the bare form of both, but there is every chance that she will arrive here at concert pitch. The Johnny Murtagh horses always have to be respected in this weekend, especially in the handicaps, as we saw again yesterday. This trip is probably close to optimal for her, even though she gets further. I like her outside draw, and Ben Coen has chosen to ride her.
Her stable companion Retracement was on my shortlist, as were State Actor and Sujet and Masoun, and Crown Of Oaks could be head and shoulders above his rivals. But he is fashionable and he is very short, and Shaool is the value against him in my book.
SHAOOL WON (ADV 12/1 [R4], SP 11/2])
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