Tag Archive for: Oh So Sharp Stakes

Merrily provides Oh So Sharp cheer for O’Brien

Aidan O’Brien’s second-string Merrily caused an upset in the Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket.

With Ryan Moore choosing to ride Ecstatic in the Group Three contest, Wayne Lordan stepped in for the mount on Merrily, who despite showing useful form in her five previous races seemingly had her limitations exposed.

The market concentrated on Ralph Beckett’s Cathedral, impressive winner of her only outing to date, and Ollie Sangster’s Flight, who had run well in the May Hill last time out.

With two furlongs left to run Flight appeared to be travelling very strongly indeed for Oisin Murphy on her drop in trip, but Cathedral was also beginning to hit top gear for David Egan in the Amo Racing silks.

As they began to meet the rising ground Cathedral was getting on top of Flight, but on her outside Merrily came with a sweeping run and readily accounted for the better-fancied filly to win by half a length at 25-1. Flight was over three lengths away in third.

O’Brien said: “She was very unlucky in Goodwood, she had to kind of jump two or three hurdles up the straight there and Declan (McDonogh) thought she was very unlucky.

“Wayne rode her the last day and thought it all went wrong then for him too, and he didn’t get any cover and she did too much. That’s why she was here.

“She’s a fine, big filly and Wayne gave her a lovely ride today. She won very nicely and I think she is a Guineas filly now, looking at her. It will be interesting as she is a big, rangy filly with lots of class and she handles dig in the ground.

“We can at least train her for a Guineas trial now and see how we go.”

Cambridgeshire Meeting – Juddmonte Day – Newmarket Racecourse
Kia Joorabchian just missed out with Cathedral (Mike Egerton/PA).

Cathedral’s owner Kia Joorabchian said: “That was a big ask on her second start and her first time on turf. We asked her a big question and she has given it an amazing try.

“She is definitely next year’s filly, but we had to give today a go because she was so well at home and we wanted to give her the experience on here, because she could be a Guineas filly.

“She has done us proud there and she’s picked up with the winner and drawn clear of the third. It was a great run.”



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Dance Sequence swoops late for Sharp success

Dance Sequence pounced late to land the Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes for William Buick and Charlie Appleby.

The filly came into the race with one run and one victory under her belt and started at 4-1 for the seven-furlong Group Three despite not having run since July.

Travelling in mid division, the daughter of Dubawi joined runner-up and 7-4 favourite Skellet in pulling clear of the field at the half-furlong pole before crossing the line a neck ahead of the latter horse.

The pair pulled three lengths clear of third-placed Star Music, with the winner now a 14-1 shot for next year’s 1000 Guineas with Coral.

Dance Sequence (right) got the better of Skellet
Dance Sequence (right) got the better of Skellet (Nigel French/PA)

Appleby said: “She was very impressive on her debut and today was very similar.

“William had confidence going into both races and said he was going to drop her in today. I said ‘be careful, there’s a tailwind, don’t let them get away free on the front end’, but he has such confidence in this filly, she answers every call and he didn’t have to get hard on her.

“We purposely gave her the gap after Newmarket. She’s a big, scopey filly and people would have been saying you could be going here, there and everywhere, but we’re well aware that we’re in the process of rebuilding our team and fillies like these aren’t easy to come by sometimes, so we purposely wanted to give her the time.

“We wanted to come here, get this assignment done, hopefully put away for the winter and dream about running in some Guineas trials next year.”

By his owns lofty standards the Moulton Paddocks handler has had a quiet year when it comes to top-level success, but he remains philosophical.

He added: “It’s not tough, this is the game we’re in. If you think you’ve cracked it you better go and find another sport.

“We knew ourselves this season was going to be a bit more challenging following the retirement of some of those older horses, as they’re always the pillar of the yard, but we’re confident we have some nice two-year-olds coming through.

Charlie Appleby trains Dance Sequence
Charlie Appleby trains Dance Sequence (David Davies/PA)

“I don’t see a Guineas colt, if I’m being honest, but looking at some of the pedigrees we’ve got and some of the physicals, they were always going to be three-year-olds.

“Hopefully this filly is one of the sharper ones in the fillies’ division. She’s got a bit more daylight to go yet before we look at her as a serious Guineas contender in my opinion, but she’s on the right path.”

Ryan Moore was handed a five-day ban for careless riding aboard Skellet after the stewards found he had allowed his mount to drift right-handed in the early stages of the race, interfering with Bellarchi.

Moore will be suspended on October 27, 28, 30 and 31 plus November 1, will rules him out of Doncaster’s Futurity Trophy where ante-post favourite Diego Velazquez would be a possible mount.



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