With all the Classics now behind us, the 2020 flat season is coming to a close. The Arc and British Champions Day remain on the radar, but plenty of focus is now towards next season.
There have been some very exciting types on display in recent weeks, including my Antepost 2000 Guineas selection High Definition. Following on from my Outsiders piece on the 2000 Guineas, I’m now moving over to the fillies.
I’ve had a look through the 1000 Guineas antepost market, scanning for those horses creeping in under the radar. I’ve found three of big interest, and can present three outsiders for the 1000 Guineas!
Billesdon Brook caused a 66/1 shock for Richard Hannon in the 2018 1000 Guineas and Snow Lantern sits at a dangerous price in the market after a very promising debut at Ascot.
A daughter of Frankel, there’s plenty to like about her breeding, with her Dam being a quadruple Group 1 winner. She has a great mix of speed and stamina in her pedigree and the mile looks as though it’ll be the optimum in time.
She missed the break on her Ascot debut in July and and looked beaten at the three-furlong pole. Finding a huge amount for pressure in the final two furlongs, she flew home into a never-nearer second at the line. That was over seven furlongs, and stepping up the mile will be an obvious positive.
She’ll have learned plenty from that introduction and the fact she’s a general 16/1 for the Fillies Mile says plenty. The only way is up for this promising filly.
Winning two of her four starts thus far, Fev Rover has really impressed me in 2020. Bumping into Method and then Dandalla in two six-furlong opening runs, she broke through with a Listed success at Sandown on the step up to seven furlongs.
She found plenty for pressure and was full of running at the line, following up with a neck success in a Deauville Group 2. All her best work was done at the finish, sprinting clear in the final 50 yards.
The mile should really be up her alley, as proven by an entry into the Fillies’ Mile. She’s a general 8/1 for that contest, which shows her class, and I’m really hopeful she can continue flourishing at the age of three.
She’s won just one of her four starts thus far, but More Beautiful strikes me as the type to excel with further racing. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, she’s a beautifully bred daughter of War Front.
She’s a half-sister to 2000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior, with her Dam also being a Group 1 scorer in the form of Maybe. There’s no doubt that on what she’s achieved thus far, marked improvement is needed from her.
That being said, her breeding suggests she’s capable of far better. She’s yet to step up to the mile distance and both her half siblings (Saxon Warrior and Pavlenko) saw out the mile distance strongly.
There’s still plenty of time before the 1000 Guineas and if she does improve for the step up to the mile, which will hopefully be coming soon, she’s unlikely to be this price in June.