Timeform Senior Analyst Simon Baker with his takeaways from Saturday's Group One action at Newmarket.
It took Aidan O’Brien until 2016 to win his first Cheveley Park, but he’s dominated it in the years since, and True Love became his sixth winner of the race with her success on Saturday afternoon.
The two smooth-travelling fillies in the line-up battled it out and, in fending off Havana Anna – an improved model back at six furlongs – True Love put up a smart effort, if one that most likely falls a little below the very best performances seen in the race in recent years, including that of her stable’s wide-margin 2024 winner Lake Victoria.
That filly proved herself over a mile later in her two-year-old season and landed the Irish Guineas this year, but True Love’s stamina is sure to be a topic of debate.
She’s less obviously one for a mile and beyond than the fillies from her stable that contested the Moyglare at the start of the month – though Beautify let that form down here – and clearly has bundles of speed.
There are mixed messages from her pedigree too, as her sister and sire were sprinters, but her dam stayed a mile and a half and has produced a middle-distance winner, albeit one by Galileo.
True Love’s sire No Nay Never’s best progeny have mostly been sprinters, though his other Cheveley Park winner Alcohol Free won two Group 1s over a mile as a three-year-old, so there’s evidence to encourage a bid to become the first Cheveley Park winner to win the Guineas since Special Duty was awarded the Guineas back in 2010.
The Middle Park had the feel of a slightly substandard renewal on paper, and the form does likely rate towards the lower end of what might be expected, not least as the time was slower than the Cheveley Park and the final three furlong ‘race’ sectional only a little faster.
However, those bare facts don’t do justice to a remarkable performance from Wise Approach, who recovered from a serious early stumble to pass the entire field inside the final two furlongs.
The Middle Park has an even worse record than the Cheveley Park when it comes to producing Guineas winners – 1991 winner Rodrigo de Triano was the last to complete the double – and Wise Approach seems unlikely even to try.
Indeed, there’s an obvious parallel with his half brother Perfect Power, who won this in 2021. Perfect Power stretched out to seven furlongs when winning the Greenham on his three-year-old return, but a mile was beyond him in the Guineas and he benefit from dropping back to six furlongs when winning the Commonwealth Cup.
That race is the obvious target for Wise Approach, whose trainer Charlie Appleby was winning his third Middle Park, 11 years on from saddling his first ever Group 1 winner Charming Thought in the race.
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