Can Queen Power make it a magnificent seven for super Stoute?

3.00 NewmarketBetfair Dahlia Stakes (Group 2) | 4yo+ fillies & mares | 1m1f | ITV/RTV

Nobody has trained more winners of this Group 2 feature than Sir Michael Stoute and Queen Power will bid to give the ten-time champion trainer a magnificent seven wins in the race.

Queen Power has a highest Racing Post Rating of 110, but she has become an underachiever. All of her best RPRs have been achieved in defeat and she has won only twice in nine starts.

You have to go back to May 2019 for her last win when she beat one of her rivals, Lavender’s Blue, into second in the Listed Fillies’ Trial at Newbury, and last year she kept hitting the bar.

She bumped into subsequent Queen Anne runner-up Terebellum when second in this race last season, then finished third in the Duke Of Cambridge at Royal Ascot and fourth in the Nassau at Goodwood. Even a drop to Listed company at Salisbury in August didn’t work out.

Stoute is famed for bringing his horses along slowly and Queen Power will likely be capable of better this year at the age of five, but she definitely comes into this with a point to prove.

Posted has the highest recent RPR in the race but that was achieved under a masterful front-running ride from William Buick at Sandown last season in a race that panned out well.

Posted: has the highest-recent RPR in the fieldCredit: David Davies / Pool

Posted was able to dictate the pace for her first Listed win, when she also had Lavender’s Blue (third) behind, and it’s questionable whether she will have the same advantage here.

Lavender’s Blue has been mentioned a lot already and she ties all the form together. The Amanda Perrett-trained five-year-old is tactically versatile and that may prove a key attribute.

Lady Bowthorpe brings Group 1 form to the table courtesy of her sixth behind Nazeef in the Sun Chariot at this course last year and she is only 1lb behind Queen Power judged on RPRs.

William Jarvis might not be considered in the same bracket as Stoute, but he doesn’t tilt at windmills and Lady Bowthorpe will be only his seventh runner in a fillies’ Group race since 2011. She was his only winner in such a race when landing an Ascot Group 3 in July at 12-1.

Race analysis by Graeme Rodway

King Power team hoping faith can be rewarded

For much of his career at Leicester City there was the belief that more was to come from striker Kelechi Iheanacho, whom the 2015-16 Premier League champions secured for a not insignificant transfer fee from Manchester City in 2017.

That faith in the forward has been rewarded this season with 17 goals making him the club’s top scorer, no doubt much to the delight of Leicester City owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha.

Continuing faith is what the team behind Srivaddhanaprabha’s King Power Racing have in Queen Power, a pricey purchase as a yearling who has threatened to be very good but not quite delivered so far.

Alastair Donald, racing manager for King Power, is hoping this is the season where things all come together for the Sir Michael Stoute-trained five-year-old. He said: “We very much believe we haven't seen the best of her and she had a slightly interrupted season last year.

“We've always had a high opinion of her and this looks a softer race than when she was second last year. She's probably best at eight or nine furlongs, but she's quite flexible and the fast ground should help; things look in her favour.”

What they say

Thady Gosden, co-trainer of Indie Angel
She needed the run when she ran on all-weather finals day at Lingfield last month but has progressed from that and should appreciate this trip. It's a deep race but hopefully she can get some more black type.

Richard Hannon, trainer of Posted
She used to be quite a buzzy filly but has really calmed down a lot at home. She’s always shown a decent level of form and on her best form she has every chance.
Reporting by Peter Scargill

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