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| Staff Writer |
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John and Thady Gosden’s mare, Laurel, is set to make her first appearance in over a year at the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The lightly-raced 5YO last competed as a well-fancied contender in the Lockinge at Newbury but did not meet expectations. Notably, as a 3YO, she showed promise by finishing less than a length behind the winner in the Sun Chariot Stakes, only in her third race. Her connections are eager to assess her potential with this upcoming opportunity.
“Laurel is on target for Ascot when I was talking to John on Friday,” said Barry Mahon of owners Juddmonte.
“Unfortunately she didn’t get to have a prep run, but John and Thady just felt there was nothing suitable in the last few weeks so they decided they were happy to go straight to Ascot.
“She’s very lightly raced, but we always felt she had high-class ability. She’s been off a long time so it’s going to be a remarkable training feat to turn up at Ascot and win after over 12 months off, but they have done it before.”
On Friday at Doncaster, the famous colours filled the first two places in what looked like a hot novice race. The Ralph Beckett-trained Indellible, a Shamardal filly out of Midday, took the top spot, with Amphius (Harry Charlton), Kingman brother to Sangarius, finishing in second place.
“We don’t really have a definitive plan. I suppose we’ll see what handicap mark she gets and she could be a possible for the Sandringham at Ascot,” said Mahon of the winner.
“If not she could step up in class if she doesn’t get a normal handicap mark. You could see her getting 10 furlongs definitely, 12 I’m not so sure.
“She’s a nice filly, she’s won two of her three and she can progress as the year goes on, her work at home has always been of a nice level so hopefully she keeps going forward.
“She was in the Guineas and the Irish Guineas but she’s just taken an age to come to hand, she’s had no setbacks or anything, she still had her winter coat on about a week ago and the wet spring took its toll on her.
“It looked a good race, we like the second horse Amphius with Harry Charlton, I think he’s a nice colt.”
Kassaya, who is a half-sister to last year’s Guineas winner Chaldean, improved from her debut performance on Sunday and secured her place at Royal Ascot.
Mahon commented, “Kassaya has a lot of talent, she demonstrates great speed during training, and Andrew (Balding) has been very enthusiastic about her for the past couple of weeks.”
“She ran well on debut when the ground was on the soft side and she hit the front plenty early before getting mugged late on.
“She’d come forward nicely from that, I thought she still looked green and she can take another jump forward. All being well we’ll have a look at something at Ascot for her. I think we’ll stick at five for the minute, the way she hit the line yesterday suggests she could go up to six after that.”