The 2-year-old filly Precise, favored in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile on Friday at Newmarket, is already a Group 1 winner. Fellow 2-year-old filly Legacy Link has atop her résumé a win in a minor Haydock Park contest from two career starts. But that Haydock performance stamped her as potential Group 1 material, and Legacy Link can take down Precise and nine others in the Fillies’ Mile.
Aidan O’Brien trains Precise for Coolmore. John and Thady Gosden train Legacy Link for Juddmonte. If either filly prevails, her trainer will have won more Fillies’ Miles than anyone else. Both O’Brien and John Gosden – along with the late Henry Cecil – have won the race six times.
O’Brien has Cheveley Park Stakes winner True Love as one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Oct. 31, and Precise could be coming, too. The English bookmaking company Coral tracks Breeders’ Cup hopefuls as close as anyone, and on Wednesday had Precise a 5-2 Juvenile Fillies Turf favorite over 3-1 True Love.
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Precise has won two Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series races, the Group 3 Prestige, run around a bend at Goodwood, and more recently, the Group 1 Moyglare Stud, run down a straightaway at The Curragh. Third choice in the Moyglare Stud, where the O’Brien-trained Composing was the even-money favorite, Precise got an outside tracking trip under Ronan Whelan, reeling in the two in front of her with a strong kick through the final furlong. Christophe Soumillon, top rider for O’Brien since Ryan Moore was sidelined with a hairline leg fracture, takes the mount Friday.
Colin Keane, retained rider for Juddmonte since June, has a return call on Legacy Link. She raced from the rear of the field in her Newmarket debut, finishing with interest for third while not hard-ridden, a debut that looked more like practice than anything when Legacy Link came out running in her second start. Favored at even money, she went straight to the front, and the more Keane asked through the final quarter mile, the more Legacy Link gave. Keane never used his crop as Legacy Link turned back Lyrics of Life, who had beaten her on debut, and Legacy Link looked ready for the brighter lights shining upon her Friday.
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