Puss primed for Ascot assignment

Glamour Puss is to be reunited with her big-race rider Steven King in her final piece of work tomorrow ahead of Tuesday’s King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The six-year-old New Zealand-bred mare is one of three Australian-trained challengers for the Group Two sprint over five furlongs on the opening day of the five-day bonanza.

“Steven King is on his way over and will take her for her final gallop on Saturday. Her work to date has been great so let’s hope her final hit out is just as impressive,” said trainer Danny O’Brien.

The six-year-old mare is being housed at Andrew Balding’s stables at Kingsclere and O’Brien reports he could not be happier with her.

“She is doing brilliantly well. She dropped only five kilograms on the 30 hour flight over and that went back on right away.

“The first thing she did when she arrived at the stable was eat, nothing seems to phase her,” O’Brien told the New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing Newsletter.

The other New Zealand-bred raider, the Lee Freedman-trained Falkirk, has also impressed his connections with the way he has settled in at Peter Chapple Hyam’s stables at Newmarket.

“The reports I have had from Lee (Freedman) are that he has made himself right at home over there,” said co-owner and breeder Nelson Schick.

“He did lose weight on the trip from Australia to England but is gradually putting that back on.”

Schick believes Falkirk should be suited by Ascot’s straight course.

“Some of his best performances in Australia have been on straight tracks,” he went on.

“We are hoping the track will be in good order because he acts best on fast ground.

“It is fantastic for the New Zealand breeding industry to have two more horses racing in England again after what Starcraft achieved there in 2005.”

Connections of the Barry Hills-trained La Cucaracha have indicated the five-year-old mare is more likely to run in the King’s Stand rather than tackle the Golden Jubilee Stakes.