Bright Diamond (Ire)
Friday sees an above-average renewal of Newcastle's G3 Hoppings Fillies' S. as Imad Al Sagar's G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Nassau S. heroine Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) looks to start her 2023 campaign in earnest on the Tapeta. Disappointing when too fresh in the G2 Prix Corrida at Saint-Cloud last month, the Gosdens have opted to go back to basics with one of the cream of last year's TDN Rising Stars. This is no foregone conclusion with Shadwell's G2 Dahlia S. runner-up and Listed Rothesay S. winner Al Husn...
Sandwiched in between the Derby and Oaks trials of Chester and York, Lingfield stages its own prep races for both Epsom Classics on Saturday before Classic action unfolds again in France on Sunday. It was only four years ago that Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Anapurna (GB) (Frankel {GB}) revived the Listed Derby and Oaks Trials by doubling up on the first Friday and Saturday in June and with the major yards represented close inspection is required. In the Derby Trial, the two colts who went to...
John and Thady Gosden had an unsually quiet season with their 2-year-olds until Isa Salman and Abdulla Al Khalifa's Commissioning (GB) (Kingman {GB}) came along and blew the scene apart in the G2 Rockfel S. a fortnight ago. Friday's G1 bet365 Fillies' Mile also on Newmarket's Rowley Mile appears hers for the taking on Friday if she can reproduce that kind of performance in such a competitive edition of that prize. Like her, Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's TDN Rising Star Bright Diamond (Ire) (El Kabeir) debuted in style on...
There were some choicely-bred fillies in Newmarket's opening British Stallion Studs EBF "Newcomers" Maiden Fillies' S. on Saturday, but one dominant member of the class in Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's Bright Diamond (Ire) (El Kabeir--Starlite Sienna {Ire}, by Elusive Pimpernel). Sent off at 10-1, the Karl Burke-trained bay who was a bargain €52,000 purchase at the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up was at work first under Clifford Lee but responded to power her way to the front approaching the furlong pole. Devouring the rising ground to the line, the relative...