NEWS ROUND-UP:AIDAN O'BRIEN'S Lillie Langtry will be looking to follow up her recent Coronation Stakes success in next Wednesday's Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket.
Jim Bolger’s Gile Na Greine was second at Ascot with the Mick Channon-trained Music Show in fourth and will be out to avenge their defeats in the Group One contest.
The dual 1,000 Guineas-winner Special Duty will also take her chance as will Jersey Stakes winner Rainfall. Strawberrydaiquiri, Spacious and Antara filled the first three places in the Windsor Forest Stakes at Ascot and they lead the defence for the older generation.
Ger Lyons is excited about the prospect of running Clondinnery over seven furlongs after his fine effort in the Railway Stakes on Sunday.
The Choisir colt made a bold bid to make every post a winning one in the Group Two event and despite being headed some way out by Samuel Morse, he was only half a length off the winner Formosina at the line.
Lyons said: “He’s a horse I can’t wait to go seven furlongs with – it just hasn’t happened yet, the race hasn’t arrived that I want to go for.
“The only race I haven’t put him in is the Phoenix Stakes because it closed early but he’s in all the others. I’d have no problems taking on Samuel Morse or the winner again.
“My horse needs to chase horses down but because of his draw on the rails we had to make good use of it and we were in front.
“At one point it looked like he might get swamped but he was coming back at them. I’m not saying he’s better than them but I’d be afraid of none of them over seven and I told his owner way back that with a bit of luck we could have a Guineas horse on our hands.
“The best thing about him is he is not for sale, whereas last year I had to sell all my best two-year-olds. I think a lot of him and I thought he ran accordingly the other day. If you’d offered me third before the race I’d have taken it but after the race I was disappointed, if that makes any sense.
“This horse is a genuine Group Two-Group One horse – he could be smart.”
Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Bethrah will be trained with an autumn campaign in mind after connections decided to miss the Falmouth Stakes next week.
Dermot Weld’s filly progressed from winning a Limerick maiden in April to Classic glory just five weeks later. Following her success she was given an easy spell at Shadwell Stud and races over 10 furlongs will now be on her agenda.
“We gave Bethrah a three-week break back at the stud and we are going to train her with autumn in mind,” said Angus Gold, owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s racing manager. “When we bring her back it will be slightly easier ground and we’ll maybe look to go over a mile and a quarter with her in due course.
“Her next race hasn’t been discussed, we will obviously think of races in Ireland to start with but we haven’t got that far.
“She had three quick races early on in the season so we’ve given her a break to freshen her up and we’ll see when she’s ready and plan around that. She has achieved so much in such a short space of time.”
