Motrice looks right for Doncaster Cup
The St Leger might be the centrepiece of the meeting at Doncaster but Group Two Doncaster Cup actually predates the world’s oldest Classic by 10 years.
It is normally the preserve of older horses and only one runner of the Classic generation has won. That was Alleluia, a filly trained by Sir Mark Prescott, in 2001 and the same trainer can achieve the same result this time with Motrice.
A typical slow-maturing type with whom Prescott excels, her breeding suggests that the step up in distance for this race and she receives a hefty weight concession from her elders. Motrice has made steady progress this season to win three handicaps and then finish third, beaten five-and-a-quarter lengths by Eastern Aria, in her first attempt at Group level. That form was franked when Eastern Aria won the Group Two Park Hill Stakes yesterday and the form of the Prescott yard could not be any better with an 86% strike-rate for this month.
At the other end of the distance scale the Group Two Polypipe Flying Childers Stakes, over five furlongs, brings together the speed merchants of the two-year-old division. With rain forecast Keratiya, trained in France by Jean-Claude Rouget, could be ideally suited. The filly did not get home behind Dream Ahead in the Group One Prix Morny, at Deauville over six furlongs, but has won both times she has run over the minimum trip and and acts with cut in the ground.
Saeed bin Suroor’s two-year-olds have a 38% strike-rate this year and White Moonstone – unbeaten in two starts this season – can improve upon that impressive record in the Group Two Keepmoat May Hill Stakes, having already run out the comfortable winner of the Group Three Sweet Solera Newmarket last month, for which she does not incur a penalty.
Mount Athos only won by a half-length at York last month but was value for more than the bare winning margin, having given away much ground by hanging badly right in the final furlong, and can follow up in the Ladbrokes Mallard Handicap.
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