Wesley Ward has a score to settle with the Knavesmire after watching Acapulco (Scat Daddy) come unstuck against Mecca's Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the 2015 G1 Coolmore Nunthorpe S. and with the ground drying all the time the portents are strong for atonement courtesy of 'TDN Rising Star' Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy) on Friday. Winning Royal Ascot's G1 King's Stand S. with magisterial ease when last seen on June 20, Stonestreet Stables LLC and Peter Leidel's 3-year-old has trained perfectly towards this contest and jockey Frankie Dettori is expecting big things. “I think it was an almighty performance in the King's Stand,” he said. “She brushed aside some great older horses. She's a typical sprinter. She's on her toes and she has two switches–slow and fast. There's nothing in between. Last year we tried really hard to get her to run over six furlongs. We got away with it in the Prix Morny, but for me five furlongs is ideal for her. I think York will suit her, as she's got tremendous speed and typically American horses like a flat track. York might suit her better than Ascot.”
This race has been teed up as a match after the impressive G2 King George S. success of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). Building on wins at Sandown in the June 17 Listed Scurry S. and July 8 G3 Sprint S., the vastly-improved flying machine had several of these behind in that Aug. 4 Goodwood sprint including the Group 1 winners Profitable (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Jim Crowley has already ridden a top-level winner at this meeting and is hoping he can double up here. “He's not overly big, but he's just got such a high cruising speed,” he said. “What impressed me at Goodwood was the way he coped with the ground, because there's always a doubt in your mind when a horse has got so much speed. He'd broken the track record at Sandown the time before.” Of Lady Aurelia, he added, “Fillies can be a little in and out, plus she has to cope with the travelling backwards and forwards, but what she's done so far has been impressive. She's a very fast filly and it's going to be a great race.”
Whether Marsha can reverse an emphatic beating in the King George or even the King's Stand, when she was again third when Profitable was second, with Battaash and Lady Aurelia remains to be seen but Elite Racing Club's G1 Prix de l'Abbaye heroine is still a force in this category and this track will suit her ideally. “She is very consistent, run in all the top sprints this year and been placed every time,” trainer Sir Mark Prescott said. “The Nunthorpe looks a marvellous race with some very, very fast horses in it and she is entitled to be there but Lady Aurelia and Mr Hills's horse [Battaash] have both beaten her this year. They have beaten her fair and square before but in sprints, tiny little things make a big difference.”
Clive Cox again saddles Profitable and the May 27 G2 Temple S. winner Priceless (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), with the former holding the bragging rights after finishing well ahead of his stablemate as she trailed in 12th and ninth in the King's Stand and King George respectively. “Profitable is in great form and I'm really pleased with him,” the trainer said. “I'd say Lady Aurelia is the one to be beat, but we are four pounds better off with her compared to Ascot.”
Any Ballydoyle representative commands respect and despite having been beaten by the main protagonists Washington DC (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) at least comes here off a confidence-boosting win in the Listed Phoenix Sprint S. at The Curragh on Aug. 13.
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