Stayings the name of the game for these fillies.

Well its that time of year again, and having spent a relaxing few weeks in Devon, your reporter has flown up the Motorway (at an average speed of 25 mph) to get back to Newmarket and resume coverage of HQ’s varied racing programme. The early Autumn weather has remained fine in Suffolk resulting in a fast dirt surface and as if to prove the variation available here, todays feature event is a 13f listed stake for fillies.

One thing these girls will need to do, especially with Newmarket’s uphill finish, is stay the trip at pace and it will be interesting to see what tactics the jockeys adopt to ensure this. whatever the tactics though, only one of these can come out on top, so lets have a look at our field.

First up in stall 1 is Denovo’s Awesome Wells, a daughter of Sadler’s Wells out of a Really Awesome mare. One of two six year olds in the field, her trainer will be hoping that she can give some of the younger ones a bloody nose here. She has won 5 times from her 41 starts, amassing over $75,000 and certainly seems comfortable at these trips around 12 to 14 furlongs. She has only run in one stakes race previously, with most of her racing taking place in allowance races, but does seem to run her biggest races in terms of speed at around this trip.Top local jock A Craig gets the mount today and will certainly know where the post is, and with stamina not being in doubt, the pair are likely to be close up with the pace. Providing wear and tear are not beginning to catch up with her, she could well run the legs off a few of these youngsters. She’s a 6/1 shot on the morning line, and that is probably a fair reflection of her chance, with a few of thses likely to have too much pace.

K’s Katchet breaks from stall 2 and Vertigo2’s daughter of Pine Bluff is a very nice filly indeed. She has won 6 of her 19 lifetime starts including two stakes and looks to be one of the more unexposed fillies in the race. Interestingly, her trainer has opted to run her here on the dirt when all of her wins have come on grass, but she did run some decent races on dirt in her 2yo days. If she can convert her 97 SP which she posted when winning her last stakes race over 14f into dirt figures, she would win this in a canter, but the question of whether she is as good on dirt remains. Jockey P Riggs must certainly hope she will, and at 4/1 third best, the punters must expect her to. With her mid closing style, she could well find an extra bit of pace at the business end to carry her past these.

Goblet of Fire(IRE) comes next and Castro’s filly looks as though she could spring a surprise here. She appears overmatched here, coming from a starter allowance win last time up, but is another who looks to relish the trip. Her 20 starts have resulted in 6 wins, which is a good return, even though most have been at a lower grade. She did run well in allowance races over similar trips and jockey C Barnett will hope that she can belie her odds of 9/1. She does need to find a bit in terms of speed ratings, but it wouldn’t be the first time a horse found the necessary improvement when stepped up in class, although it seems unlikely.

Tete Nazareth(IRE) is next in stall 4 and looks to have a live chance here. Trained by local handler Astinator7, she looks to be ready to run a big race and judged by her win in an allowance over todays trip on her penultimate start, has very little to find speed wise. By Generous(IRE) out of a Nashwan mare, she is certainly bred to be at home over these longer trips and needs to find very little to take this. She’s won 6 races in her 26 lifetime starts and could actually have teh pace to lead these if no-one else takes up the running with J Bradley winding the pace up gradually in the second half of the race. She’s 3/1 second favourite here and looks as though she will take all the beating.

Miss Gracie in stall 5 looks like she would need to improve by a lot to figure here, and the market agrees making her 9/1 equal outsider. She has done most of her winning over sprint trips and while she ran decently in two stakes races over 12f recently, she was beaten over 10 lengths on both occassions. Jockey L Sullivan will need to conjur something pretty amazing from the daughter of Shaadi to get her to figure here, but stranger things have happened.

Synthetic Audio could certainly make a big noise here from stall 6, and with 30% lifetime wins she knows where the post is. An imposing daughter of Sky Mesa, she has won over distances between 8 and 16 furlongs and has proven to be capable of holding her own in stakes company since being stepped up in class although not troubling the judge in her three previous attempts. Roscoe6 will be hoping that this is her time, and B Fly will be hoping that he can keep her up near the pace and use her undoubted stamina to wear her rivals down. The morning line have her at 5/1 which is a fair reflection of her chance and she should run a big race.

The favourite breaks from the outside stall and Nexis in China has been sent off at 2/1. Danknight’s daughter of China visit has a decent win record at allowance level, and ran a 100 SP over 9f recently. She is making her first step up into stakes company here and looks to have a decent chance although whether the form translates or not is always open to debate untill the line has been stepped over. In her nine runs this year, she has never been out of the first three winning three times, but only one of those runs, a second over todays trip was over more than 9.5 f. T Heck will be hoping to bring her with her usual late run, and provided she stays, she could reward favourite backers.

In summary, I’ll have a stab at Tete Nazareth to take the race from the fast finishing K’s Katchet with Nexis in China running on into third. All in all an interesting little race for this reporter to ease his way back after the holidays.

Good luck to the connections of all the fillies involved.