Wednesday 16th June 2010
Special Duty in line for July Course G1
Special Duty (left) on course for the Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes
Dual Classic heroine Special Duty is to bid for a third Group 1 success at Newmarket in the £185,000 Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes.
The Khalid Abdulla home-bred is one of 36 fillies and mares entered for the prestigious mile contest, highlight of the first day at the three-day Newmarket July Festival on Wednesday, 7th July.
Special Duty gave trainer Criquette Head-Maarek a fourth win in the Group 1 1000 Guineas on 2nd May, when she was awarded the race in the stewards’ room after suffering interference when a nose behind Jacqueline Quest.
She created history in the French equivalent, the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, at Longchamp two weeks later as she again went by the post in second but was promoted following the disqualification of Liliside.
Head-Maarek revealed today: “Special Duty is absolutely on course for the Etihad Airways Falmouth Stakes. She worked with a lead horse on Tuesday morning and she looks fine at the moment.
“We decided to give Royal Ascot a miss because she had two races in the space of 14 days and we thought that it would have been a little hard on her to go for the Coronation Stakes.
“She hit the rail coming down the hill at Longchamp and then she was looking for room in the straight, which is why she looked a little outpaced - she went from going slow to fast.
“It’s true to say that she was not interfered with at Longchamp compared to Newmarket, but she had to wait for an opening and she met trouble in running. She was behind Liliside and she couldn’t get a run until the final two hundred metres, when she flew home.
“I think that she was the best horse in both races and she has settled so well now. She looks very relaxed in her work and it’s possible that we might step her up beyond a mile at some point. The July Course is a stiff mile and there will be plenty of pace, which will suit her.
“We haven’t got the option of keeping her against her own age and we have to take on older opposition in all of the Group One races now. We could have waited and gone to Deauville with her, for the Prix Rothschild (1st August), but she would still have to face older opposition.
The second day of Newmarket’s July Festival, Thursday, 8th July, is also set for an intriguing clash of the generations after 44 horses were entered for the £95,000 Group Two Princess Of Wales’s sportingbet.com Stakes over a mile and a half.
Five-year-old Mawatheeq found only Twice Over half a length too strong in the Group One Emirates Airline Champion Stakes on Champions’ Day at Newmarket in October, while French Group One winner Spanish Moon may line up for Sir Michael Stoute, who has also entered Group Three scorers Harbinger and Glass Harmonium.
Last year’s Ladbrokes St Leger runner-up Kite Wood and Group One Grand Prix de Paris scorer Cavalryman are among seven entries from Saeed bin Suroor, while Jukebox Jury, successful in the Group Two StanJames.com Jockey Club Stakes, could return to Newmarket for trainer Mark Johnston.
Rewilding, third in the Group One Investec Derby for Mahmood Al Zarooni, spearheads an 11-strong three-year-old challenge for the mile and a half contest.
A total of 45 horses remain following Tueday’s scratchings deadline for the £400,000 Group One Darley July Cup, the third British leg of the Global Sprint Challenge and highlight of the third and final day of the Newmarket July Festival on Friday, 9th July.
