Tag Archive for: Fitzella

Palmer considering Deauville or Newmarket for Fitzella

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Hugo Palmer is weighing up his options with Fitzella after her impressive victory in the Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot last month, with France and Newmarket on the radar.

The daughter of Too Darn Hot broke her maiden at Haydock and was not disgraced in the Albany Stakes at the Royal meeting when fourth behind Karl Burke’s smart Venetian Sun.

But she came out on top on her return to the Berkshire circuit when beating Staya by a length and Palmer is now plotting where to send her next before a trip to the Breeders’ Cup.

The Malpas-based handler said: “We were very pleased with that. She seems to have come out of it in very good order.

“She’s already had four starts. It’s a question of how many more times do we want to run her this season. She’s kind of grown and changed all year and I think she is a filly with a future, I don’t think she is just a two-year-old.

“In my mind there will probably be no more than two more goes this year. She is potentially a filly for the Breeders’ Cup, so that possibly means just one more European run. We want to do everything we can to make sure that’s a winning European run before we go to California.

“In my head I thought maybe the Prix du Calvados (at Deauville on August 24), which is where Simmering went last year after winning the Princess Margaret and I thought that looked quite a nice fit.

“Predicting and reading the ground in France is tricky and she does want top of the ground, but it’s very hot in August in Deauville and it dries out very quickly being by the beach and by the river and we’ll just have to be on weather watch.

“If that didn’t work I thought probably the Rockfel (at Newmarket on September 26) would be an obvious target, it’ll be another month later but the Cambridgeshire meeting tends to throw up quite quick ground, still being relatively early.

“She is in the Moyglare as well. But the Moyglare being that jump to Group One company might be the hardest way to keep her unbeaten, to make sure her next run is a winning one.

“Any Group winning two-year-old from this point of the season onwards, you’re thinking about the Guineas. There’s a lot of water to throw under the bridge between now and then but that’s what we’d like her to be.”

Fitzella fits the bill for Hugo Palmer in Princess Margaret

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Fitzella showed her class at Ascot with a smart victory in the Sodexo Live! Princess Margaret Stakes.

The Hugo Palmer-trained filly was fourth at the same track in the Albany Stakes at the Royal meeting, beaten three lengths by a highly-regarded rival in Karl Burke’s Venetian Sun.

This time she was the 9-4 favourite under Oisin Murphy, and took up the running early on to set a good pace from the front.

As the race developed the contenders behind her attempted to close, but the daughter of Too Darn Hot was well able to keep her head in front to claim an eventual one-length win from George Scott’s Staya.

Oisin Murphy returns victorious aboard Fitzella
Oisin Murphy returns victorious aboard Fitzella (John Walton/PA)

Palmer said: “Oisin was very upset when he came in from the Albany as he felt he sat too close to a very strong pace, he did realise and took back but the damage was already kind of done by then.

“We felt on reflection that it was her class that allowed her to finish fourth on that occasion.

“She was probably drawn on the wrong side of the track that day as well and today the plan was to hold her up and race more patiently and use her finish.

“She pinged the lids and Oisin had to go straight to plan B and it worked very nicely. He didn’t go hard and of course she’s very exciting.

“She was an expensive yearling but has always been beautiful and still is and I’m delighted she’s a Group winner now.

“I’ve only watched it once so I don’t know how tough Oisin has had to be on her. She was very game and very willing which is what she has been at home since the get-go. I’m delighted today, but just sad she’s not a Royal Ascot winner.”

Coral made Fitzella a 25-1 chance for next May’s 1000 Guineas, but more immediate in Palmer’s thoughts is the Breeders’ Cup, with a trip to France a possibility before crossing the Atlantic to Del Mar in November.

Palmer continued: “She’s shown great gate speed today and the Breeders’ Cup would definitely be on the radar, she will definitely run again and possibly twice, but I wouldn’t think more than that.

“It’s her fourth start of the year and I wouldn’t want her to have many more than five or six runs.

“She has a Moyglare entry, but that is a very stiff seven furlongs and I would have thought the Prix du Calvados at Deauville may be the right option, it’s a month away. She wouldn’t want soft ground though, so we will have to see what the weather brings.”