Certify out to make better headlines with her first runner on the track

Certify, whose later inclusions in the news archives are for rather more ignoble reasons, has the chance to start with a clean slate as a broodmare when her first foal goes to post at Leicester on Thursday evening.

Among the leading contenders for the 1,000 Guineas in 2013, she was one of the horses prevented from racing for six months in 2013 as part of the fallout from the Mahmoud Al Zarooni doping scandal.

The daughter of Elusive Quality and half-sister to US Grade 1 winner Cry And Catch Me had been unbeaten in four starts as a two-year-old culminating in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket.

She struck again on her reemergence for new trainer Charlie Appleby in the Cape Verdi in Dubai the following year before her form tailed off.

It is Appleby who has taken charge of her son Law Of Peace, the mount of Kerrin McEvoy in the seven-furlong British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes.

By Royal Ascot’s leading sire Shamardal, Law Of Peace has a stiff enough task against the well-bred Invincible Spirit colt Mottrib, who carries a penalty after winning nicely on debut at Newbury a fortnight ago, as well as Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s second string Itkaan, a Gutaifan newcomer with a precocious-looking back story.

Certify is being given the best possible chance to shine from the paddocks by Godolphin as she was sent to Dubawi the following year, and she produced a colt from him, too. The mare was not covered subsequently, so has no foal.

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