Friday’s racing round-up brings you the news of a potential high-class contest staged at Doncaster next Thursday…
Desert Flower looks to enhance her Classic credentials as she featured among this morning's twelve entries for the Betfred May Hill Stakes at Doncaster on Thursday. Charlie Appleby's filly made quite an impression when dominating on her July course debut, before following up with a six-and-a-half victory at the same track last month. The daughter of Night Of Thunder is a best-priced 16-1 for next year's 1000 Guineas and could renew her rivalry with the Ollie Sangster-trained Flight, who was second behind Desert Flower at Newmarket in July but has since opened her account in style at Sandown.
The Irish raider Fine Margin completed a hat-trick in Britain by providing both Willie and Patrick Mullins with their first-ever winner at Bangor-on-Dee. The seven-year-old was an easy-to-back 11-8 favourite but after travelling strongly throughout the two-mile three-and-a-half furlong before knuckling down well to land the prize by a length.
Aidan O'Brien's beautifully-bred daughter of Dubawi, who is out of the seven-time Group 1 winner Magical, Ballet Splippers got off the mark at the third attempt at Ascot this afternoon. The exciting youngster finished thirdbehind the exciting Red Letter on her Curragh debut before being caught late on by the also-promising Falling Snow at the same track last month, but under an uncomplicated Ryan Moore ride, she duly landed the spoils at prohibited odds of 1/4 at Ascot.
The eagerly awaited meeting of star milers Notable Speech and Charyn will take place at Longchamp on Sunday after both colts featured among seven declarations for the Group 1 Prix du Moulin. Charyn will bid to complete a Group 1 hat-trick following wins in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and Prix Jacques le Marois, while Charlie Appleby's 2000 Guineas hero Notable Speech is attempting to back up his sensational performance in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. The pair will be joined by Aidan O'Brien's Henry Longfellow, who arrives having disappointed behind Notable Speech on the downs. The going on Longchamp's Grande Piste course was officially 3.7 (souple) on Friday morning, which is loosely translated to good to soft on the GoingStick.
