Irish fillies Babouche and Lake Victoria are unbeaten Group One winners but Saturday’s Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes could prove to be as much a test of their grit as class.
Testing ground conditions at Newmarket on Friday resulted in a spate of non-runners and presents a new test to the Irish stars.
Success for the Moyglare Stakes heroine Lake Victoria will give Aidan O’Brien a record fifth Cheveley Park but he knows better than most how big a threat Babouche is.
She beat O’Brien’s subsequent Prix Morny-winning colt Whistlejacket in last month’s Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh. The latter is himself favourite to follow up his French success in the Middle Park Stakes 35 minutes after the Cheveley Park.
Babouche hasn’t put a foot wrong to date, but she hasn’t had to put them into soft ground either which is an unknown factor for the standard bearer among Ger Lyons’s outstanding group of juvenile fillies this season.
A pair of French fillies though are used to cut in the ground. The supplemented Rayevka is a maiden winner, but Daylight was third in the Morny after not getting a clear run at a vital stage.
Whistlejacket sets the Middle Park standard and the last three Morny winners have doubled up at Newmarket including O’Brien’s 2022 winner Blackbeard.
Other Irish interest comes from Michael O’Callaghan’s Richmond winner Black Forza who couldn’t recover from a poor start when he went to Kentucky Downs for his last start.
Tony Martin’s She’s Our Mare was the last Irish-based horse to land the Cambridgeshire and ground conditions have ruled out Dermot Weld’s stalwart Coeur D’or from trying to bridge that gap.
Babouche’s jockey Colin Keane will try to secure another big pot on Emmet Mullins’s This Songisforyou who scored at the Irish Champions Festival. Jim Crowley rides Jessica Harrington’s Norwalk Havoc in the historic handicap.
