BIG RACE PREVIEW: We look ahead to the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday. 12 runners are set to go to post and it looks a wide open Group 1 judged by the BETDAQ market.
Sun To Shine On Mother Earth
Race Summary
A cracking renewal of the Group 1 Kingdom Of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes sees this season’s 1000 Guineas winner take on both the Falmouth Stakes winner and the Matron Stakes winner. And so Mother Earth takes on both Snow Lantern and No Speak Alexander as all three fillies look to add to their Group 1 haul.
Mother Earth has literally attended almost every party in town since her famous win on the Rowley Mile back in May. She has shown fantastic consistency at the highest level all season and after winning the Prix Rothschild at Deauville in August, she went in search of her third Group 1 win of the season in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown three weeks ago. However she met with very bad interference and could only finished third just a length and a half behind the afore-mentioned victor, No Speak Alexander. She looked to be very unlucky and she must have a every chance of reversing the form here.
That said, No Speak Alexander has also been mixing it in the best of company this season and though her winning price of 25/1 suggested her victory in the Matron Stakes was a surprise, the daughter of Shalaa had finished a close-up third in the Irish 1000 Guineas in May and so her price was probably a little bit of an insult. She has every right to take her chance here and she cannot be discounted.
Snow Lantern is the third three-year-old filly in here who has been dining at the top table for most of the season. She gained her Group 1 win in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket in July where she beat Mother Earth by half a length with the top class Alcohol Free a further neck behind in third place. She comes here on the back of a creditable fourth behind Baaeed in the Prix Du Moulin at Longchamp a month ago and she is a big player.
The ten year trends show that all three fillies are very much in the ballpark when it comes to age, profile and official ratings with the winner tending to average around the 116 official rating mark. The winning horse has also tended to be either three or four years of age and the three fillies mentioned above are all from the classic crop and so they are three years of age by definition. Of the three four-year-olds in the race then Champers Elysees looks the most likely on the trends however the daughter of Elzaam has not managed to get her head in front this season and she has it all on to trouble the leading three-year-olds.
Lavenders Blue, Saffron Beach and Fev Rover could all go well however it is much more likely that the winner will come from those at the top end of the market and such was the finishing effort of Mother Earth last time (albeit she was badly hampered), it could be that the Coolmore filly is thriving on her racing and she is taken to win this and enhance her paddock value before she potentially heads off to the breeding sheds.
Suggestion: Mother Earth
Alternative: Snow Lantern
