At 12/1 AMAZING MARIA is once again a ridiculous price to land back-to-back victories in the Group One Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket on Friday.
She won the race last year also at 12/1 – our first-ever winner at 2pts win – so clearly has the class and it looks like she’ll get her ground, too.
Newmarket missed the weekend’s showers and the ground is already described as good – so with a dry forecast there seems little reason to doubt she’ll get her favoured quicker conditions.
Course form is all-important at Newmarket and she has a big tick in that box, and her most recent run in the Queen Anne Stakes won by American wonderfilly Tepin was excellent too.
She will have hated the soft ground but still ran a blinder to finish four lengths back in sixth – and that run seems to have been wrongly dismissed by the bookies.
She won two Group One fillies’ races last season as well as the Group Two Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot, beating plenty of classy horses along the way.
One of those was the current ante-post favourite for this race, Usherette, who has been excellent this season in winning all four starts.
She too boasts good Newmarket form as she won the Charm Spirit Stakes there earlier this season, beating Amazing Maria by five lengths.
However, that was the selection’s seasonal reappearance and she can easily be forgiven the run considering Usherette had already run and won twice.
The fact remains that Amazing Maria beat Usherette easily in last season’s Prix Rothchild Stakes (watch below) and it’s David O’Meara’s horse that is the dual Group One winner and officially the highest-rated horse in the race.
I’d even argue she should be favourite.
As such, I’m siding with Amazing Maria early because, surely, that 12/1 can’t last – particularly if the ground remains good.
1.5pt win Amazing Maria @12/1, 16:15 Newmarket, Friday (ante-post)
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go on son