Sunday still looks so Sacred. Amen!
QIPCO 1,000 Guineas Today, 3.40pm
SACRED can prove the answer to punters’ prayers in the
QIPCO 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket this afternoon.
The daughter of Exceed And Excel embarked on a series of four Group-race defeats after marking her debut with a victory over the final five furlongs of the Rowley Mile last June.
But Sacred’s homework this spring suggested to her trainer William Haggas that she had taken a step forward from two to three.
And so it proved when she beat Saffron Beach for the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket’s Craven meeting 18 days ago, coming from the back to register a three-quarterlength success.
The evidence of that win is that the step up from seven furlongs to a mile will suit Sacred, who can give hot favourite Santa Barbara – who steps up to Group 1 company after a maiden score at the Curragh last September – plenty to think about.
Don’t underestimate LADY BOWTHORPE in the Group 2 Betfair Dahlia
Stakes (3.00).
The William Jarvis-trained mare progressed into a smart performer last year, and her runaway triumph in Ascot’s Group 3 Valiant Stakes in July gives her a major chance.
She suffered a first career defeat in hock-deep mud at Deauville last October, but
LADY HAYES should find today’s conditions more to her liking in the Listed Betfair Pretty Polly Stakes (2.25).
Roger Varian’s daughter of Kodiac had looked smart with one-length supremacies at Haydock Park and Salisbury the previous month, and has more to offer.
The Back And Lay On Betfair Exchange Handicap (1.50) opens ITV’s coverage, and SKY DEFENDER is the selection to defy top weight.
At Hamilton Park, BEN LILLY looks ripe for a hat-trick in the MansionBet Beaten By A Head Buttonhook Handicap (2.40), while DRAGON SYMBOL is deservedly a warm order to take his career tally to four wins from four attempts in the MansionBet Best Odds Guaranteed EBF Tangerine Trees Conditions Stakes (3.15). OPERA GIFT makes his reappearance in Salisbury’s AJN Steelstock “Delivering Steel Expertise” City Bowl Handicap (2.05), and gets the Nap vote to hit the ground running.
CAMERON NORRIE will today bid to win his first ATP Tour singles title at the Estoril Open.
The Brit will face Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the final after beating former US Open champion Marin Cilic 7-6 7-5. It was Norrie’s 18th ATP Tour match win of the season.
Should he triumph today, Norrie (below) will become the first player to win both the singles and doubles titles at the Portuguese tournament having won alongside fellow Brit Kyle Edmund in
2018.
CYCLING
GERAINT THOMAS missed out on his first victory in almost three years when he crashed with the finish line in sight at the Tour de Romandie.
The Welshman, who has not won since the 2018
Tour de France, fell on a slippery road on yesterday’s fourth stage.
It cost Thomas (below) the yellow jersey as he crossed the line in third.
He is second overall
– 11 seconds behind stage winner Michael Woods – ahead of today’s 16km individual time trial finale.