Paul Deegan says Midnight Soprano underrated – Horseracing News
Paul Deegan has claimed that his trainee Midnight Soprano is in excellent form at the moment and she has been underrated by everyone in the bet365 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock.
The Group 2 event has attracted some extremely good challengers, so the competition between them is likely to be a close one. However, the punters have not shown much interest in Midnight Soprano, as they have been placing bets
on her rivals.
Looking at that situation, Deegan said, “She's in the form on her life and has improved from Cork. Unless the ground is very quick she'll run and will put it up to them. My mare is underrated.”
He added, “I wasn't expecting her to win at Cork. We've very few options and this is an opportunity we couldn't afford to miss. I would probably say her best trip is a mile and six, but her best form is probably over a mile and
a half, so I'm not worried about the trip.”
There have been a very few times when the six-year-old mare has been given the best odds for victory, which is a bit surprising, especially after looking at her overall record, which is a terrific one. She has an above 50 strike
rate, which suggests that she knows how to handle pressure.
However, racing in class-1 competitions is never easy for any challenger, thus Midnight Soprano will have to work extremely hard to achieve a good result for her camp. She is fully capable of doing so, but will need the ground
conditions to work in her favour.
Last time around when the Irish mare won, she ran on a soft track, which suited her more than the rivals. In case the weather at Haydock remains dry in the coming days, it will be hard for Deegan to send his challenger in.
Midnight Soprano has won a total of eight races in her career out of which, six have come on rain affected grounds. Therefore, she would want the track to be wet in order to cause an upset in the Lancashire Oaks. The event will
be held on Saturday, so rain on Friday would definitely be ideal for James Monaghan’s owned mare.
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