Wednesday 17th June 2009
French heroine has July Course date
This year’s £200,000 Group One Abu Dhabi Falmouth Stakes looks set to be another superb renewal, with a total of 28 fillies and mares entered for the mile contest, highlight of racing on the first day of the Champagne Lanson July Festival, Wednesday, July 8.
Freddie Head is hoping that his outstanding miler Goldikova can land her fourth Group One contest following a magnificent 2008 campaign that saw the four-year-old Anabaa filly triumph in the Prix Rothschild at Deauville in August, the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp the following month and the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in October.
She was also runner-up to last season’s champion filly Zarkava in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches prior to coming third in the Prix de Diane, and began the current campaign with a seventh on unsuitably soft ground in the Group One Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp on May 17.
Head revealed today: “We have entered Goldikova in the Abu Dhabi Falmouth Stakes and she will definitely make the trip across to Newmarket if she is fit and well.
“I can’t really understand why she ran so badly in the Prix d’Ispahan but the going was very soft. She would have preferred faster ground but I think it was just a funny day at Longchamp - the form of all of the races hasn’t worked out very well.
“That run was very disappointing - too bad to be true - and I think that there must have been something wrong with her. We gave her a rest afterwards and she is fine at the moment, so we will hopefully take her to Newmarket.
“I wasn’t surprised with the way that she progressed last season as we have always thought a great deal of her. I hope that she can come back to her best against her own sex in the Abu Dhabi Falmouth Stakes and we can take her season from there.”
