Wayne Lordan
enjoyed a productive
Galway
week, highlighted by Hint Of A Tint’s Topaz Mile victory, and will hope renewing acquaintances with Legatissimo can produce Group One
Goodwood
glory in the
Qatar Nassau Stakes
.
Lordan rode David Wachman’s 1,000 Guineas winner in her first five career starts before Ryan Moore took over at Newmarket and for when Legatissimo was touched off in the Epsom Oaks.
Moore was also in the plate when Legatissimo failed by inches to haul back Diamondsandrubies in June’s Pretty Polly. But his injury absence means Lordan is back on the star filly who will renew rivalry with Diamondandrubies as well as Aidan O’Brien’s other hope, Wedding View.
With the three year olds carrying 8.12, Séamus Heffernan maintains his partnership with Diamondsandrubies while Colm O’Donoghue is on Wedding Vow who broke her maiden in a Group Two at the Curragh last time.
Different fillies
O’Brien won back-to-back Nassaus courtesy of Peeping Fawn and Halfway To Heaven in 2007-08. But
John Gosden
has won it for the last three years with three different fillies and has three contenders today including Richard Hughes’s final Group One mount, Bright Approach.
Frankie Dettori however looks to be on the Gosden No 1 Star Of Seville, the French Oaks winner.
He said said: “She is a mile-and-a-quarter filly as she showed in the Musidora and the Diane. The mile and a half of the Oaks was too far.”
Joseph O’Brien remains in Galway this weekend but it is his younger brother Donnacha who can secure Sunday’s big festival pot as the English raider Baraweez pursues back-to-back wins in the €100,000 Ahonoora Handicap.
Brian Ellison's runner landed the seven furlong event last year after finishing third in the Topaz Mile just five days previously. Baraweez did even better in the big mile handicap earlier this week, finding only Hint Of A Tint too good after striking the front on the turn-in. He is higher in the ratings for the race this time but O'Brien's 5lb claim could prove crucial.
It is easy to see why Rebel Fitz skipped both the Plate and the Hurdle to wait for a chase tomorrow where the conditions stack up in his favour. Beaten just once in his last ten starts, Mick Winters' star has his old partner Davy Russell back in the saddle for the first time in two and a half years.
Fugi Mountain should also bring Willie Mullins's hugely successful festival to a victorious close in the bumper.
