Figgis .. you write some good stuff and so incidentally does jamesp year in year out.

Very good thread guys. Just curious as to what you guys think of Coolmore. Sister to Marvellous and Gleneagles. Surely overlooked compared to Ballydoyle.

Coolmore had a hard race today ( jockey would have been in trouble under GB whip rules ) but she has plenty of scope and todays experience might just make her rather than break her

Cheers guys

Not too surprising though considering Lumiere went faster earlier, conditions were also faster on the Friday by my reckoning.

What you can say for Promising Run is that of her and the Cheveley Park fillies she's the one more likely to get the mile well. I do think Lumiere will stay but Promising Run looks nailed on for the mile. However, then you have to temper that with the trainer. I'm not even talking about his recent record at winning classics with the wealth of talent at his dispoal I mean his record at just even keeping them sound enough to make the gig. Either he's had some seriously unbelievable bad luck or something has been wrong with the methods and I suspect it's the latter.

Could be, lewisham ranger, although they had quite a lot of success in the early years of that experiment, so I don't know. Maybe they've been too hard trained? Impossible to know really unless you have experience of their methods. In recent years it's got to the stage where I expect to read the news that one of his has been withdrawn from a classic for one reason or another and it's a surprise when they make the line-up.

.....or the horse is named Cape Verdi, Kazzia, Mark Of Esteem or Island Sand :)

The Gr.1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Sunday promises to shed more light on the 1000 Guineas picture.  However, not for the first time, Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore owners are keeping everyone in the dark regarding running plans.  They left three fillies in the race at this morning's forfeit stage - Ballydoyle, Minding and Coolmore.  I guess they're keeping their options open until the last possible moment, but ground conditions (currently good to soft) and the clement weather forecast (dry and warm) suggest that we're likely to get good ground by Sunday, which should suit all three fillies.  Better ground should be in Ballydoyle's favour, as she wasn't at home on the sticky ground in the Moyglare Stud Stakes last time.  Aidan O'Brien has won the Boussac twice in the last five years (with Found and Misty For Me), and his representative(s) will obviously take plenty of beating.

Pascal Bary has won the Prix Marcel Boussac on five occasions, most recently with Six Perfections in 2002 (unlucky second in the following year's 1000 Guineas), Denebola in 2003 (second favourite for the 1000 Guineas over the winter, missed the race), and Divine Proportions in 2004 (five length winner of the French Guineas) (all three owned by the Niarchos family).  Bary eventually won the Guineas in 2008 with Natagora.  His representative this year, Antonoé (owned by Khalid Abdullah), is highly regarded and has looked a very smart prospect in her two racecourse appearances to date, most recently sauntering away with the Gr.3 Prix d'Aumale (a traditional preparation for Sunday's race).  The lightly-raced Antonoé doesn't have much to find on ratings (4lbs and 5lbs below Ballydoyle and Minding respectively on RPR's) and is likely to be challenging for favouritism for Sunday's race.  Given Pascal Bary's record of liking to target the 1000 Guineas with his best fillies, I have decided to have a 'saver' on Antonoé at 25-1 for the Guineas (the price has since been cut to 20-1).  The price reflects the possibility that she might be aimed at the French classics rather than Newmarket, but if she wins well on Sunday there will be an expectation that she will be aimed at the Guineas.

Turret Rocks, Jim Bolger's game winner of the Gr.2 May Hill Stakes, is comfortably held by Ballydoyle on earlier Debutante Stakes form, but she's a progressive filly and could run well.  She's basically a middle distance filly for next year, so it's hard to envisage her entering the 1000 Guineas picture, whatever happens on Sunday.  Karl Burke could run Katie's Diamond, dual winner over 6f in the first half of the season and third in the Gr.3 Prix du Calvados last time.  The Calvados form looks better now than it did at the time, with runner-up Marenko having chased home Turret Rocks in the May Hill, and the fourth Sasparella winning the Gr.3 Prix Eclipse next time, and Katie's Diamond seemed to have her excuses last time, but she needs to find a fair amount of improvement and looks a tricky ride.  Jean-Claude Rouget looks set to run Qemah, but she was beaten 6½ lengths when runner-up to Antonoé on debut and has little chance of reversing that form on Sunday (she has since won a minor 5-runner race at Longchamp by 3 lengths).  Aktoria and Ella Diva were both well beaten by Antonoé in the Prix d'Aumale.  Left Hand lifted a maiden race over course and distance on debut, winning by a length in a very slow time.

Now Or Never was taken out of the race at this morning's forfeit stage (presumably on account of the drying ground), along with Aidan's once-raced Best In The World (full sister to Found).

There are just eight runners for the Gr.1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Sunday.  Minding and Coolmore were both withdrawn at this morning's final declaration stage.  Ryan Moore rides Ballydoyle, with Vincent Cheminaud on Antonoé and Kevin Manning on Turret Rocks.

I don't know if Ballydoyle will win the Boussac or not because it's difficult to gauge the strength of the race but I do believe she's overrated so I wouldn't be at all surprised if she's beaten, therefore I've backed Lumiere for the Guineas instead of waiting on the result.

I'm not so sure that Ballydoyle is a good thing on Sunday.  I'm sure that she's a smart filly, but I get the impression that Antonoé could be very smart as well.  I've already backed Pascal Bary's filly at 25-1 for the Guineas and may go in again at 20-1.  I'm already on Ballydoyle at 10-1 and reckon that she would be able to reverse Moyglare placings with Minding on good or faster ground.

My recent Chantilly trip also threw up a general view that Antonoe is the best juvenile filly in France by some way and will be hard to beat in the Total Prix Marcel Boussac.
She is trained by Pascal Bary, who has an excellent record in the race and her jockey Vincent Cheminaud is very confident. He told me that he thought she was a very special filly and definitely the best two-year-old in France.

Read this on antonoe, backing today as not high on ballydoyle and a dabble on guineas market. If you havent watched her races so far she looked scintillating, has natural brilliance (still a bit green)

French runner HATED that fast ground
Not coming to Newmarket

I can see they'll want to go the mile route if they can, just as they did with Found, but personally I think there are others faster.

A laughable price. When looking at the form behind it's difficult to say she achieved anything more than she has before. Also even though O'Brien has won it twice with lesser fancied runners in the past he's often struggled to get his higher rated fillies ready for the race for some reason.

Ballydoyle was very impressive and to think Minding cruised past it, sometimes bare form is better than potential. just going by the leading fancies, it looks like it's going to be a cracking good race next year. cheers.

Injured my wallet too.

Hope she is ok,shame as horse looked very smart in her previous races.

If coolmore runs she wins and they won't be able to contain her turn of foot up the hill.

The Lagardere was noticeably very slowly run so a time comparison between the two is misleading. The time when compared to the whole card results in a decent but no more than average time for the class and it would be optimistic to think those behind would have finished so close in the Cheveley Park. Of course Ballydoyle could be better than the bare result but she was beaten fair and square last time and for me it's the Coolmore/O'Brien factor that is making her such a short price. Obviously such successful connections can have an influence on a horse's chances but it's not a race they've excelled at in the past.