William Haggas will find out a lot more about his potential star filly Born With Pride (Ire) (Born To Sea {Ire}) as she takes on the colts in Kempton's G3 Unibet Classic Trial on Wednesday, which has been re-routed from its traditional home of Sandown. Having already done the unusual by upstaging Ballydoyle's well-regarded Peaceful (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and the G3 Prix des Reservoirs runner-up Run Wild (Ger) (Amaron {GB}) on her racecourse debut in the Listed Montrose Fillies' S. at Newmarket in November, the Tsui family's homebred is as exciting as it gets among her age and sex.
“We are hopeful of a good run,” trainer William Haggas commented. “It is a tough race. It's against the colts which I don't like, but our hands are tied to get some experience into her before the bigger races, so we've got to go. We will see what happens. It's not an ideal race for her, but she has to start somewhere and we have to get on. If you look at her pedigree, she is totally better at a mile and a quarter than a mile, so we're hoping that's right.”
Born With Pride gets the three-pound sex allowance from the Pickford Hill Partnership's Max Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), who dominated the 10-furlong G3 Zetland S. on soft ground at Newmarket in October. Trainer Ralph Beckett commented, “It is not going to be easy around there for him as it is a tight 10 furlongs, not like the galloping one he won over at Newmarket. He will enjoy the surface and I see him running well and getting involved. We decided to run him here rather than in the Lingfield Derby Trial as I didn't want to run him on fast ground and there weren't many other options, and he needs a run before we go to Epsom. If he gets beat it isn't the end of the world, as this is only a prep run for the Derby. This will be a good trial for him.”
Mark Johnston puts Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum's impressive Dec. 13 Chelmsford novice scorer Hypothetical (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) to the test, while Charlie Appleby also supplies an unexposed type in Bright Melody (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). A gelded son of the G1 Fillies' Mile heroine Lyric of Light (GB) (Street Cry {Ire}), he also scored on his sole start at Chelmsford on Jan. 9 and will provide a marker for the stable's Derby aspirants.
“Bright Melody was green on his debut, but did everything the right way round and finished off his race nicely,” Appleby said. “He is a gelding, so doesn't have any Classic aspirations, but we felt that he deserves a crack at this level. We are hopeful that he can produce another good effort and we will know more about his future afterwards.”
In the other black-type race on the card, the Listed EBF/Unibet Snowdrop Fillies' S., Richard Hannon takes the wraps off the 2018 G1 1000 Guineas and 2019 G1 Sun Chariot S. heroine Billesdon Brook (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}). She has to give seven pounds to a pair of dangerously-unexposed John Gosden fillies in Nazeef (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Scentasia (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}).
“I took her to Kempton for a gallop and she worked well,” Hannon explained. “She's in the Windsor Forest [June 16 G2 Duke of Cambridge S.] at Royal Ascot and we'll have a good look at the Sun Chariot again and the owners are quite keen to travel. There are a good few options, the Rothschild is there as well. She takes her racing well and it's lovely to have her there for another year. It's very sporting of Mrs McCreery to keep a horse like that in training for people to keep seeing. She gives her a lot of pleasure and is a beautiful filly. She's the sort of filly that when she's on form, she never looks like getting beat, she's that sort of quality. When she won the Guineas she looked awesome and it was nice to see her do that again in the Sun Chariot.”
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