Anna Salai can make it pay in Irish 1000 Guineas
One of the most surprising statistics about the Godolphin is that they are yet to win the Irish 1000 Guineas.
If that is to change at the Curragh on Sunday, the man responsible will be one of the biggest changes that has been made to the Godolphin set-up for this year. Mahmood Al Zarooni (pictured) is a new name but one that British racing will have to start taking notice of. He arrived in Newmarket this spring, as Godolphin’s second trainer, and has a strike-rate of 21% for the season, which is actually better than that of Saeed bin Suroor.
He has his first runner in Ireland when he saddles Anna Salai for the Etihad Airways Irish 1000 Guineas, for which Godolphin have paid a supplementary entry fee of €30,000. Anna Salai is a recent acquisition from André Fabre’s Godolphin yard in France and she looked good prospect when she broke her maiden with a victory in a Group Three race at Longchamp last month.
Aside from style there was also substance as she beat the highly regarded Rosanara by two-and-a-quarter lengths, and that filly has since run Special Duty to within a length in the Poule D'Essai Des Pouliches last weekend. That form ties in well with Special Duty’s form in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket three weeks ago, although Music Show – who got the worst of the draw there – still rates as a big danger.
With Frankie Dettori riding in France, Ahmed Ajtebi rides Anna Salai and also Cutlass Bay for Bin Suroor in the other Group One race on the card, Tattersalls Gold Cup.
Cutlass Bay, who is unbeaten so far in five starts, is another Fabre import. He won the Prix Ganay last time out and last year he beat Cavalryman in Group Two at Saint-Cloud. On a strict line of form that gives him the beating of Fame And Glory and, with only five runners, the distance of this extended 10 furlongs looks likely to play to Cutlass Bay’s turn of foot rather than Fame And Glory’s more stamina-imbued talents.
The latest talent contest from which Aidan O’Brien will attempt to select his final team for next month’s Investec Derby is the Group Three Airlie Stud Gallinule Stakes.
He runs Jan Vermeer, who is one of the six entries that O’Brien still has in the Derby, and, if he has any chance of running at Epsom, he must win this and probably will.
Tags: