There’s a decent looking fillies Group 3 race after the feature Oaks and Derby trials on Saturday.
Pretty Baby is the current 9/4 favourite for William Haggas. She looked highly progressive last season, which culminated in a Group 3 win at Goodwood in August. She did well on that occasion to just get her head in front of the strongly finishing Dancing Star, who carries a 3lb penalty here.
The jolly has won four of her six career starts, all of which have been on quick ground. So it’s a bit of an unknown as to how she will handle the soft conditions at Lingfield. They might not suit and she’s also been handed a poor draw on her first start of the season.
In fact there are question marks for a few in this in relation to the ground so it just might be worth siding with DEVANT, who will relish the soft ground and has travelled over from France with a trainer that had the runner-up in this in 2014.
Devant has had just the five starts thus far, winning two, including a Group 3 at Maisons-Laffitte over 7f last September. She’s a daughter of Showcasing, with Galileo as the dam’s sire, so there’s every reason to think she should have the sort of predigree to improve as a three-year-old. Devant’s seasonal reappearance was pretty encouraging having been slowly away, before not getting a clear run in the race eventually finishing fourth to some potentially smart three-year-olds with the front two running in the French Guineas on Sunday.
Devant receives 9lbs from the majority of her rivals here (despite a 3lb penalty for her Group 3 win) with her being the only three-year-old in the race. French winners have also won three of the last ten runnings of this and Devant seems a fair price to take on the market principles with.
1pt win Devant @5/1, 15:40 Lingfield, Saturday
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