3 minute read
Two important meetings are converging this Thursday as post-Derby racing continues.
The Dante meeting is usually held earlier in May but this is not a usual year, and it has been condensed into one day.
So we get both the Musidora and the Dante on the one card. The former, G3 for 3yo fillies, over 2100m has 8 starters with the Khalid Abdulla colours likely to shine with Ricetta and Pocket Square the most fancied. Ricetta is by Camelot and is unbeaten and on 7/4 for Gosden-Dettori. Pocket Square is by Night of Thunder and on 5/4 for Roger Charlton and Jason Watson. She's had 5 outings for 2 wins, a second and two thirds.
The Dante, G2 has 6 starters headed by the exciting Highest Ground, a Frankel colt who has won his first two outings. Sir Michael Stoute has booked Oisin Murphy for the ride and the quote is around 5/6. We are going a bit wide here with Juan Elcano for the two Kevins. This will be a third run in from a spell and he may be ready to show his best. 7/1.
At Newmarket the racing is of course on the July course with the Bahrain Trophy Stakes and the July Stakes the features of the card.
The Bahrain is over 2600m with 8 starters. The market has Aidan O'Brien's Dawn Rising on top but he's only just broken his maiden at Limerick and this may be tougher even though he's another Galileo. We like Godolphin's Al Dabaran, a Dubawi colt (Appleby-Buick) who has two wins, a second and a third from his 5 outings to date and is on 7/2. Al Aasy is by Sea The Stars and is on 9/4 for William Haggas and Jim Crowley.
The July Stakes is over 1200m for the 2yo C&G and as usual with 2yos anything can happen. The market has Qaader on 9/4 for Mark Johnston and Jim Crowley. He's by Night of Thunder who is also the sire of Pocket Square racing in the Musidora at York. The Queen's Tactical is by Toronado and was the winner of the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot. Andrew Balding trains and William Buick has the ride and they have a quote of 5/2. Swiss Ace is by Kingman and on 5/1 for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore.
