Poet’s Vanity is set to make her seasonal debut in the Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes over seven furlongs of Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse on Wednesday (19th April) as she steps up her preparations for the Group 1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas at the same venue on Sunday, 7th May.
A ready winner of the Group 3 visionsport.com Oh So Sharp Stakes over this course and distance last October, the Andrew Balding-trained daughter of Poet’s Voice heads the 19 initial entries for this prestigious £60,000 Group 3 event.
Her appearance in the Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn will represent something of a change of tactics for Balding, who has not given any of his three previous QIPCO 1000 Guineas runners a prep race. The one of that trio who fared the best was Casual Look, sixth in the Guineas in 2003 prior to triumphing in the Epsom Oaks.
Poet's Vanity is currently trading at around 16-1 in the ante post betting market for the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.
11 of her potential Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn opponents also hold a Guineas entry, most notably John Gosden’s Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac third, Dabyah, and last year’s Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes heroine, Roly Poly, trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien.
O’Brien has two other Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn entries, including Brave Anna, the filly who narrowly denied Roly Poly in September’s Group 1 Connolly’s RED MILLS Cheveley Park Stakes.
Another possible runner on Wednesday is last term’s Irish Group 3 winner, Sea Of Grace, a recent recruit to the Newmarket yard of William Haggas and the subject of market support into as low as 12-1 for the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.
Strong entries have also been received for the other two feature races on Wednesday – the middle day of the three-day bet365 Craven Meeting.
The 10 horses engaged in the Group 3 £60,000 bet365 Earl of Sefton Stakes include the Betfred Cambridgeshire winner, Spark Plug, while Seven Heavens, a son of Frankel last seen when finishing down the field in the Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes, is among the 13 entered in the Listed £37,000 bet365 European Free Handicap.
“Poet’s Vanity has done well over the winter and I am very happy with the standard of her recent work,” said Balding.
“But she is a big filly, and although I fully expect her to run a decent race on Wednesday, there is no doubt that she will come on for the run.”
“She is so relaxed that I would be very surprised if she didn’t stay the mile of the QIPCO 1000 Guineas although I doubt that she will get much further.”
“All her racing has been on fast ground so, although I’m sure that she will handle a soft surface when the time comes, I would rather have her prep run on decent ground and I am happy with the dry weather forecast for the next few days.”
