Connections wait on Ouija plan
Lord Derby’s multiple Group One-winning mare currently holds two engagements at the five-day meeting which opens tomorrow.
She is in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, for which the final declarations are made today, and she also holds an entry in Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes.
“A decision will be made tomorrow morning,” said trainer Ed Dunlop last evening.
Ouija Board is 8-1 for the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes with totesport, although Coral go a more cautious 6-1 for the Group One race over a mile and a quarter with Coral.
She was runner-up to Shirocco in the Coronation Cup at Epsom over a mile and a half, the distance of the Hardwicke, on her latest start earlier this month.
* Shane Kelly is “pretty confident” of being fit for Royal Ascot after taking a nasty fall at Leicester on Saturday evening.
Kelly was unshipped by Barbirolli on the way down to the start in the sportingchronicle.com Handicap, suffering a badly-bruised left shoulder as a consequence.
Although the Irish rider was fit enough to ride in the race – Barbirolli finished seventh – he was stood down from his duties at Salisbury yesterday.
Kelly has been given a major boost, however, after X-rays revealed he has not suffered any major damage.
To that end, the 27-year-old is targeting a return to the saddle at Windsor today.
* Vodafone Oaks runner-up Rising Cross had to settle for eighth in the Italian equivalent in Milan yesterday as Dionisia ran out an impressive winner under Christophe Soumillon.
The rider made his move around three furlongs out and the result of the Group One contest was never in doubt thereafter, with Twardowska left toiling some six lengths back and Sir Mark Prescott’s Souvenance another three-quarters of a length away in third.
