Fresh from Sunday’s Group 1 triumph with Wuheida in the Prix Marcel Boussac, trainer Charlie Appleby is excited by the prospects of another highly-regarded two-year-old Dubawi filly, Sobetsu, in Friday’s (7th October) Group 1 Dubai Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse.
A field of eight runners has been declared for this one mile contest which is not only the showpiece of Day One of Dubai Future Champions Festival but also Europe’s richest juvenile Group 1 race with total prize money of £533,750.
A ten-length winner of a maiden over this very course and distance three weeks ago, Sobetsu will be reopposed by Sir Michael Stoute’s Spatial, a daughter of the 1000 Guineas runner-up, Spacious, who beat her into third place in another Newmarket maiden, this time on the Adnams July Course, back in August.
Other leading candidates are the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair of Hydrangea and Rhododendron, second and third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes on their latest starts and previously second and first in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes.
Further stiff opposition will be provided by Ralph Beckett’s Rich Legacy, winner of last month’s Group 2 May Hill Stakes and subsequently supplemented for this race at a cost of £40,000.
Numerous other highlights on the first day of Dubai Future Champions Festival include Cougar Mountain and Gifted Master, the first two from the recent Group 2 Shadwell Joel Stakes, crossing swords again in the Group 2 £164,550 Dubai Challenge Stakes; Miss Infinity, the Group 2 Shadwell Rockfel Stakes third, heading a field of 13 juvenile fillies in the Group 3 £80,000 visionsport.com Oh So Sharp Stakes; and the popular Weatherbys Super Sprint winner, Mrs Danvers, putting her unbeaten record on the line in the Group 3 £80,000 Newmarket Academy Godolphin Beacon Project Cornwallis Stakes.
Charlie Appleby, trainer of Sobetsu, said:
“I am very pleased with Sobetsu, she is proven on the track, which is a bonus, and I think that she has a very solid chance in the Dubai Fillies’ Mile.”
“Her and Wuheida are the two standout fillies in my yard, two very imposing daughters of Dubawi with hopefully bright three-year-old careers ahead of them. We sent Wuheida to France because Sobetsu was already a winner on the Rowley Mile and it allowed her an extra week of preparation time.”
“If Sobetsu could complete the Group 1 double it would be fantastic for the team and fantastic for Dubawi as well – he’s already a renowned worldwide stallion but it would give a new status to his reputation.”
“I appreciate that she has got to get past Spatial, and we very much respect her, but when they met before it was Sobetsu’s debut whereas Spatial had already run, finishing second to Wuheida. Sobetsu really came forward for that first run and was very impressive last time.”
