Monday, 21 October 2024

Famed Too Big At The Curragh

It was a bad day for us on Saturday at Ascot. Sweet William landed the e/w NB place money but apart from that, it was a day to forget. It is rare that I tip up horses in midweek on this blog but I am making an exception this week. There is a Group 3 race for 2yo fillies at the Curragh tomorrow and a couple look a touch overpriced to my eye.

First of all, Tamam Desert looks big at 22/1. After shaping with huge potential on her debut at Leopardstown, she confirmed that promise by winning at the Galway Festival. She still looked pretty green that day but she ran on well to just get up in that 7f heat and on that evidence, and on her breeding, this step up to a mile looks certain to suit.

She should go well but at an even bigger price, Famed Again is very interesting. Trained by Tom Cooper, who is better known for his exploits in the National Hunt sphere, this filly finished third behind Tamam Desert in that Galway maiden. She was only 1.75l behind that rival and she didn’t get as clear a run so she is more than capable of closing that gap.

However, the run that really caught my eye was her effort in the valuable 7f Auction race at Naas won by another of today’s rivals, Fiona Maccoul. Draw in stall 2, Ronan Whelan bustled her up the inside to get a decent early position. However, once she got into that position she began to race extremely keenly, fighting her jockey for the guts of a furlong and a half.

Despite those early antics, she kept on really well late on and she just failed to get third. At the line she was just over a length behind the winner, to whom she was conceding 4lbs, and a half a length behind her in fifth was Sigh No More, a Group 3 winner at Leopardstown on her next start. She was getting 6lbs from that rival but even so, it was an excellent effort.

On pedigree there’s a good chance a mile will suit and her effort at Galway suggested it would pose no problems too. Cooper now applies the hood, which will hopefully help her to settle better, and the quiet hands of Colin Keane could be a big help in that department too.

The assessor has rated her 78 and I think he could be wrong. I think she deserves to be rated at least in the mid-80s on the back of her last two runs and the fact that Cooper is running here instead of going for a nursery suggests that he might think the same. 

Keane is 1/9 with another five top four finishes when riding for the yard (66% frame hitting strike rate) so at odds of 66/1, surely Famed Again is worth throwing a few pennies at each way. Hopefully she can nick some precious black type. 

Stevos’ Selection: Famed Again e/w @ 66/1

No comments:

Post a Comment