Park Hill Fillies' Stakes Tips: Back Oxford To Top The Class
The highlight of Ladies' Day at Doncaster, which kicks off the St Leger Festival, sees the headline race the Park Hill Fillies' Stakes take centre stage on Town Moor on Thursday. A competitive race is in store but Billy Grimshaw thinks he's found the one to back...
This has been a race of late in which the Classic generation have had the best of things, perhaps due to its late nature in the season and the big weight the three year olds receive from their elders. Nevertheless, the favourite is four year old Night Sparkle as I type this piece out on Wednesday morning. Indeed, the top three in the market are all four or older - potentially something we can exploit.
The favourite does bring solid claims to the table, with three solid seconds from five runs this season including a brilliant effort in the Lillie Langtry at Goodwood. She was not in with much of a chance last time out in the Lonsdale Cup but that looked a hot race and now back in calmer waters, she has a shot. I'm not sure she's the right market leader on what we've seen thus far for Andrew Balding, however, as the Yorkshire Oaks fourth Mistral Star to me ran a stronger race than Night Sparkle has this season when chasing home three bona fide Group 1 fillies last time out. She is as tough as old boots and Hughie Morrison's runner looks the one to beat to me.
Scenic is third in the market and she has seemingly kicked on once more recently, with a career best coming three weeks ago to stride clear in a Listed York race. For all she has her chance, I do think the claims of Mistral Star in particular are stronger and unless she drifts markedly I'd struggle to make a case for her at the prices in comparison to the two market leaders.
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A quartet of three year olds are entered in here but before we go through them I'll assess the claims of a few more of the older horses. Last season's winner Sumo Sam is interesting if allowed an easy lead once more, but the main negative against her is that she has been seen two times this season and has two times failed to fire. All to prove then, which is similar to Gather Ye Rosebuds who has been off over 100 days and while her stamina isn't in doubt, seems to act better on a softer surface than she'll be faced with on Day One. Sweet Memories is the final older horse for the Gosdens and is simply too inconsistent for me to have in mind.
Onto the Classic generation then, and the shortest price of those is Grateful for Ryan Moore and Aidan O'Brien. She should appreciate Doncaster more than she did Goodwood last time out, where she was seemingly unsuited by the undulations, but I'm not convinced she is straightforward and will be avoiding her at around 6/1. Ambiente Amigo is the outsider of the field and while she looks to put it all in every time she runs, she is not up to this standard and can be ignored.
Nakheel was last season chasing home Scenic but gets more weight here, has headgear on and should be suited by the step up in trip, so could well cut that deficit but is not in my opinion up to this test, so that leaves us with just my fancy OXFORD COMMA with Rossa Ryan booked for Ralph Beckett. The Nathaniel filly is by far the least exposed proposition in this race, but I was taken very much with the style of her novice win here almost fifty days ago and while she has an absence to defy, she oozed class that day and Ralph Beckett will have had this race in mind since that win back in high summer.
She has idled slightly at the end of both her wins so far in her career but I think this just shows how easily she was winning these races, so with more pace and a tougher test here I expect a real breakout performance from a horse who could go on to have an outstanding four year old campaign for Beckett, similar to that of Bluestocking this year.