Strawberrydaiquiri blossoms in Dahlia Stakes
Sir Michael Stoute may not have been able to muster a runner for either of the Classics at Newmarket this weekend but he still found some worthwhile ammunition to hand.
Stoute is an acknowledged master of masterminding a racing programme for a slow-maturing horse and he demonstrated this once more when Strawberrydaiquiri battled hard to beat Honimiere by a head for a first Pattern win, the Group Three stanjames.com Dahlia Stakes.
Neil Callan looked to have pinched this race with Honimiere. Callan, ploughing a lone furrow close to the stands’ rail – something that many would do from then on - was a few lengths clear with three furlongs to run. But Strawberrydaiquiri battled her way through the last two furlongs to win by a head. “She was game and really had to battle today,” Stoute said. “The runner-up poached a lead and my filly was a bit tired but her gameness saw her through.
“At the end of last season we thought she would get 10 furlongs so we’d be looking at races from eight to 10 furlongs. She is in the Ascot race [the Windsor Forest Stakes] and the Pretty Polly in Ireland but we’ll just have to see how she progresses from race one to race two. She thrives on the warmth and will improve a bit from this but she is going to need to.”
The soft ground looked ideal for dual Oaks winner Sariska, but she had to miss the race after suffering a minor hoof injury. Her trainer, Michael Bell, had been hoping to use the race as a seasonal starting point for his but her participation had originally been in some doubt on Friday due to the fast ground and now she is likely to run in the Middleton Stakes at York on May 13th.
“Sadly she’s out and it’s very frustrating as the rain has come and the ground would have been fine for her,” Bell said. “It’s nothing major but it’s just enough to swing the balance against running her. She’s just twisted her plate when she’s been stood in her box and pricked her foot, it is only minor but it’s enough to stop us running.
“York is now very much the target as this should only hold us up two or three days at the most.”
Not much seems to hold up Mark Johnston-trained runners, most of whom race up with the pace and, Marie De Medici took the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes under a bold front-running ride from Frankie Dettori.
“She ran very well two weeks ago here and Frankie said that a mile-and-a-quarter would probably be her trip,” Johnston said. “We entered her for the Cheshire Oaks but when we looked at the entries for that race and this, we decided to come here.
“She is in the Oaks at Epsom but I think that might stretch her a bit. It’s probably a step too far from today. John [Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor] suggested the Italian Oaks and we’ll take it gradually with her.”
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