2.55 Newbury, Mdn, £8,500, 3yo, f, 10f 6yT
TAQAAREED (IRE) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is a full-sister to the 2014 Epsom Oaks heroine Taghrooda (GB) who starts out for the same John Gosden stable. Owner-breeder Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum witnessed another of his Oaks winners, Eswarah (GB) (Unfuwain) in this 11 years ago, so the likelihood is that this chestnut is highly-regarded taking on experienced rivals, such as the Niarchos Family's Shall We (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), a Sir Michael Stoute-trained daughter of the 1999 GI E. P. Taylor S. scorer Insight (Fr) (Sadler's Wells), and Andrew Rosen and Edward Easton's September Stars (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}), a Ralph Beckett-trained 260,000gns TATOCT half-sister to the 2013 G1 Racing Post Trophy third Altruistic (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), whose dam is a half to Angara (GB) (Alzao).
4.35 Newbury, Cond, £16,000, 3yo, 10f 6yT
MIDTERM (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) makes his eagerly-awaited 3-year-old debut for Khalid Abdullah and Sir Michael Stoute, with a prominent position in the current ante-post market for the Derby suggesting he has been doing all the right things back in Newmarket. The first foal out of the six-times Group 1 winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who was able to perform to a high standard in easy conditions, started with a highly promising debut win over a mile on good-to-soft ground here in October. In division two of that maiden, one of his two opponents here was successful in Kirsten Rausing's Algometer (GB) (Archipenko), a David Simcock-trained son of the MG1SW Albanova (GB) (Alzao). This race has been won by two subsequent Classic heroines in Light Shift (Kingmambo) and Star of Seville (GB) (Duke of Marmalade {Ire}) since 2007, and also the classy trio of Western Hymn (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}), Contributer (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Ektihaam (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
