As the road to the Epsom Oaks and Derby festival continues attention, now turns to Lingfield Park for their trial races.
You Got To Me (2.25pm, Lingfield)
The Oaks Trial is fully up for grabs and any of these runners could win what is a relatively weak class 1 race.
After City Of Troy’s poor outing in the 2,000 Guineas, there has been a lot of talk about ‘training on’ — the process of making sure a good two-year-old horse is kept up to his or her work and is developed into an even better three-year-old.
Provided no bad tendencies have snuck in, You Got To Me of the Ralph Beckett yard could prove to good for the competition.
An impressive debut winner at Kempton Park in September, she followed that up by coming fifth in a listed mile race in heavy conditions at Newmarket on November 4.
Slow and awkwardly stuck at the back of the field, she made headway from three furlongs out to get some free space and chased after the leading quartet, staying on without threatening.
Now as a three-year-old over this longer distance, she should be able to notch career win number two.
Defiance (3pm, Lingfield)
Aiden O’Brien brings over two horses from Ireland, The Euphrates and Illinois. They have similar form lines having raced against each other a month ago at Leopardstown, but their form is fairly weak all things considered, having been no match for Dallas Star that day.
Therefore the preference is to go for Defiance, a horse bred in Ireland but actually trained in England by Roger Varian.
He was a winner on debut at Sandown in August and that has turned out to be a very hot Maiden Stakes race where the second and third placed horses currently hold Derby entries. Defiance stayed on strongly to battle both.
Only sixth in a Group 2 at Newmarket in September, he improved for his reappearance at Epsom last month, and stayed on well into second in the Blue Riband Trial. The extra furlong today will be to his advantage and he should win here.
Madame De Sevigne (4.10pm, Lingfield)
Inner Temple for the Archie Watson yard is a strong favourite after winning back-to-back races. He has of course gone up in weight because of that, and there is one horse carrying less weight and at a bigger price that should be able to defeat it.
Madame De Sevigne came second at Chelmsford in November and improved further on reappearance when fourth in a class 2 at Ascot on the first of this month. She is a serious danger of this handicap mark and can take full advantage of that here.
