Day 2 of the Ebor Festival, and a card with a Group 1, a £500,000 sales race and a heritage handicap on it. Our NAP competition is free for everybody to enter all week, and the first race here is free for everyone to read as always.
1:50 Group 2 fillies: Wild Blossom to prove what we think she is
We are sticking with Wild Blossom (K R Burke, James Doyle) in the 1:50, because we remain convinced there is a great deal of ability in there. She is our Top Rated.
Her record reads oddly until you look at it properly. She was impressive winning on debut at Carlisle at 15/8. She then ran completely flat at Ascot on her second start and finished well beaten at 7/1. Then she bounced back at Goodwood in July, winning a conditions race at 5/4 off 98.
That Goodwood placement was a clever piece of work by connections. It picked up good prize money and, just as usefully, it got another run into her at a level she could win at rather than one that would knock her about again. The Ascot run looks the outlier rather than the truth.
She steps up to 6f for the first time, and everything about the way she has been campaigned suggests that is the direction of travel. If she runs to what we think she is worth, this is the day she proves it.