David O’Meara admits it makes a ‘lot of sense’ to take in the bet365 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park on Saturday (July 5th) with Estrange, who he believes is on a steeper upward curve than his Group One stars of the past.

The daughter of Night Of Thunder demonstrated her star potential at the Merseyside track last month when running away with the Group Three Betfred Nifty 50 Lester Piggott Fillies’ Stakes on her first start over a mile and a half.

On the back of that success connections had considered dropping the lightly raced four-year-old back down to a mile and quarter for a breakthrough Group One outing in last Saturday’s Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

However, with ground conditions in Ireland on the quick side O’Meara believes sending the Cheveley Park Stud-owned filly back to the scene of her latest success in the £125,000 Group Two contest this weekend provides a much ‘better fit’.

And heading into the race the Upper Helmsley handler feels that his latest stable star shapes up well to the likes of his previous Group/Grade One winners, which include Amazing Maria, G Force, Lord Glitters and Mondialiste.

O’Meara said: “We did consider the Pretty Polly in Ireland for Estrange, but they missed a lot of the rain and I didn’t think there was a need to come back to 10 furlongs on quick ground.

“She won her last race quite easily at Haydock Park and it didn’t look like she had a hard race when she came in afterwards. She came home and ate up and was back into exercise two days later.

“It makes a lot of sense to go to Haydock Park as we have already been there and there are not the huge logistical arrangements that we would have faced to get over to Ireland.

"This looks a better fit for her and there appears to be the potential for a bit of rain as well which would help.

“There has been a lot of talk about her, but she doesn’t know that. When she gets out there hopefully it will be more of the same from her.

“Plenty of fillies have taken this race on route to Group One success so hopefully she turns up at Haydock Park at the weekend in the same form she has up to now.

“She would be on a steeper upward curve than the likes of Amazing Maria, Lord Glitters and Mondialiste, who all won at the top level for us.”

Although victory never looked in any doubt for Estrange on her Group race debut at the Merseyside venue on her seasonal return O’Meara insists there was a great sense of relief when she crossed the line in front.

O’Meara added: “We were heading to Haydock Park the last day with quite a bit of hope that we had the same filly we sent home (to Cheveley Park Stud) the previous year, if not better.

“I thought she would see out a mile and a half, but you never know until they do it. She is out of a relation to a St Leger winner so she had a chance of staying well based on how she finished out that Listed race at Doncaster race in November.

“It made for pretty easy watching the last day. She lobbed along and it was apparent in the straight, when a lot of the other fillies were coming under pressure, that when Danny (Tudhope) eased her out she looked like she was just doing a half speed.

“It was a great sense of relief when she won as so much can go wrong in races and sometimes horses don’t live up to what we think of them, but she certainly lived up to expectations.”

While Estrange’s latest victory might have been the most notable of her career to date her talents shone through long before she made a striking winning debut at Goodwood last August according to O’Meara.

He said: “We thought she was very good based on her homework so we were going down there with a fair degree of hope.

“It was a brilliant first run and we were delighted with her. The distance, and the ease in which she won, did take me a bit by surprise, but we did expect her to put up a good show.

“She was a little bit unlucky in running when we stepped her up to Listed level in the John Musker at Yarmouth next time out in the passage that she had in the race.

“It was on very fast ground, and the race was rough, so she didn’t get to show herself properly that day.

“We were happy to ignore that run and I suggested to Chris Richardson (Cheveley Park Stud racing manager) at the time about finishing her for the year, but he said take her home and see what she is like and if she comes out of it fine then look for something else.

“She did come out of it fine so we went to Doncaster for that Listed race on November Handicap day. A lot of the horses at the front end hung in there a long time that day and she took a while to get going.

“When she did get going she was very strong through the line. She went back to Cheveley Park Stud for a short break after her win at Doncaster and she came back looking great this year.”

And while O’Meara has high hopes that Estrange could become his next Group One winner given her rate of progression he is not getting ahead of himself just yet and is taking things a day at a time.

He added: “We have been lucky enough to have quite a few Group One horses down the years, but some of those have done it in America.

“Amazing Maria was brilliant for us then we also had G-Force, while Mondialiste gave me great satisfaction when we took him to Canada and he won the Woodbine Mile.

“Far more of those good horses end up in other yards so we are very aware that we are very fortunate to have Estrange in the yard and Cheveley Park Stud have always been very supportive to us.

“As a yard, and a team, we are very excited, but we have to take every day as it comes as with racehorses twenty-four hours is a long time.

"We are very excited by her and hopefully she has got a few more good days in her yet.”

Saturday at Haydock Park is the final day of the three-day Old Newton Cup Festival.

Action gets underway with afternoon racing on Thursday 3rd July and continues on Friday 4th July when Haydock Park plays host to a true legend with Tom Jones live after evening racing. Racegoers can expect to hear all his biggest hits including "It's Not Unusual", "What's New Pussycat?" and "Delilah" plus many more.

Tickets for the Old Newton Cup Festival start from £22 and can be booked online at https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/haydock/events-tickets 

 

bet365 Lancashire Oaks (Group 2) 1m 3f 175y 

   2.40pm, Haydock Park, Saturday 5th July                

 Current Going: Good

• Beechwood (IRE) 5 Glyn Davies/Mrs J. Davies P. Twomey Ireland
• Estrange (IRE) 4 Cheveley Park Stud David O'Meara Daniel Tudhope
• Love Talk (IRE) 3 Nick Bradley Racing 19 and partner Grant Tuer
• Nuit (IRE) 3 Nuit Partners Henry de Bromhead Ireland
• Scenic (FR) 5 David Ward Ed Walker
• Shaha (IRE) 4 The Thoroughbred Racing Corporation Ltd John & Thady Gosden
• You Got To Me 4 Amo Racing Limited Ralph Beckett David Egan

 

7 entries