1000 Guineas 2019

Bad news for Pretty Pollyanna fans I feel.

Michael Bell is keen to let her take her chance in the Prix Morny and while she could take that race in her stride, it’s a race that has got a pretty awful record for throwing up Guineas winners.

Zafonic is the only horse I can recall going on to win a Guineas and the list of previous winners of the Morny is littered with sprinters and/or horses who didn’t find their form the following season.

Last year’s winner Unfortunately went into a few notebooks as a possible good sprinter but he never came forward at all this year. It is interesting to note though, that if you take Unfortunately’s two wins in France out of the equation, the remainder of his form is at about a stone lower level.

With Pretty Pollyanna the form looks sound but having only raced at 6F on fast ground, there is a concern for me over her prospects of the Guineas mile in the spring. We see them coming into their 3YO careers all too often and then failing to see it out when upped from 6F.

The next couple of months should see a performance at 7F or a mile that will make us sit up and take note of a filly with a blend of class, speed and stamina which may snag the first Classic.

I did So Perfect for the Guineas at 33/1 and while it was pleasing to see her get as close as she did to Advertise, I am a bit wary about trusting that form and it’s also taken her longer to get to the level she is at now than I had hoped for.

If I felt there was a chance of Tasleya coming over I would take the 40/1 and I would expect those odds to contract markedly if she lands the Prix Calvados. The trouble is that Rouget seems much more likely to stay at home for their own Guineas.

An open race at the moment but I am against Pretty Pollyanna with the news that she’s being “Mornyed”

Pretty Polyanna is bred to be better over further than 6f so have taken an antepost punt at 12s in case she wins well again today.

The two pulled clear of the field pulled away today and Pretty Pollyanna stayed better than Signora Cabello but that was to be expected as the filly who had won at 6F over the filly with 5F form.

There’s no doubt she is good but the extra distance in the Guineas and the record of Morny winners just puts me off, having been burnt too many times before.

There will likely be a 7F D-Day in the spring and we will all wait, some clutching nice vouchers, others not and there will be euphoria or dismay five minutes later.

The pleasure is the play, as Motorhead once sang. Born to lose, live to win

Looked like shed easily get 7 today, when she got headed then powered away, a good sign she had plenty left for me anyway, not sure about the mile yet, see how she does over 7 first.

Draw against her here, but very interested in seeing Threthias again here. She probably won’t end up in the English equivalent, but i think she looked pretty smart.

Draw would be against her here though.

The two I like are Just Wonderful. The Breeders cup race you can excuse as a long distance travel plus a poor start to the race and sharp track but even so she didn’t string two good runs in a row together. The thing in her favour though was she handled the course at Newmarket in the Rockfel and has run better at the 7f and mile opposed to shorter and she has the genius of a trainer. I think 10’s looks short enough though

and

I’d be incline to take Iridessa at 16’s here
more of an Oaks sort I guess but her stamina will be welcome early season
lightly raced enough to suggest improvement still to come