Charlie Appleby: Straight to Guineas with Wuheida


Wuheida will head straight to the Qipco 1000 Guineas – though trainer Charlie Appleby feels the unbeaten filly will more realistically be "at her best" in the Investec Oaks.

The three-year-old daughter of Dubawi looked the real deal as a juvenile, with a Newmarket maiden success impressively backed up by a Group One triumph on Arc day at Chantilly in October.

Wuheida will make her seasonal debut in the 1000 Guineas back at Newmarket on May 7, but her trainer appears sweeter on her chances of Oaks glory at Epsom on June 2.

Appleby told the Guardian: "Even going into the Marcel Boussac (at Chantilly), we'd already pencilled her in for the Oaks.

"She's going to go straight to the Guineas. I don't want to come back in trip to seven (furlongs) and I'm not worried about getting beat.

"Sometimes the European mindset is that you don't want to be beaten but you've got to look at the bigger prize and it's how you get to that prize.

"Yes, the Guineas is obviously a big prize but the Oaks is where we're going to see her at her best so we are working back from that.

"She might not be sharp enough to go and win a Guineas, we don't know, but we're going to get a better assessment of her if we can see her with a true end to-end gallop going forward to the Oaks."

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