Owen Burrows hopes Touleen and Waardah can help him bag a Group race double at next month’s Betfred St Leger meeting at Doncaster.
The Lambourn handler has outlined plans to include both fillies on the squad that he intends to take to the four-day meeting on Town Moor which gets underway on September 10th.
First to hit the track will be Waardah, who will bid to secure Group Two honours in the Betfred Park Hill Stakes, which he won with Nakheel in 2024.
And Burrows believes that should the rain hit the track in time the daughter of Postponed can better her solid third she put up during the defence of her Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes title at Goodwood last time out.
He said: “Waardah will go up to Doncaster now for the Park Hill. She is in the Royallieu at Longchamp as well and they would be her main targets, but if it is very soft there is Champions Day at Ascot to consider as well.
“I thought she ran a blinder at Goodwood as she was only beaten a nose and a head for third. She handles fast ground fine, but she is better with cut in the ground, which hopefully she will get at Doncaster.”
On the final day of the meeting Touleen is being lined up for a return to seven furlongs for a tilt at the Group Three Japan Racing Association Sceptre Fillies’ Stakes.
After meeting trouble in running before finishing second in the Group One Coronation Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot, the daughter of Lope De Vega could only finish fourth as favourite over the same course and distance in the Group Three Longines Valiant Stakes.
But Burrows is confident she can leave that effort behind dropped back in trip.
He said: “She is bouncing as well as she came out of Ascot fine. It just didn’t happen for her there, again. When she got drawn seven out of eight I thought it was not ideal.
“That was her third run on fast ground, and she lugged right when William (Buick) gave her a kick in the belly. She is a Lope De Vega so hopefully she will handle a bit of cut.
“If she had no excuses last time I would have been left scratching my head, but after a furlong I thought it wasn’t going to happen. She would have had to have a lot in hand to win from being stuck out three wide.
“She might now drop back to seven furlongs to go for the Sceptre Stakes at Doncaster. William said she is not short on speed, and we did that with her dam Talaayeb who won the City Of York Stakes after finishing fourth in the 1000 Guineas.
“Sheika Hissa has already said she will keep her in training next year, but I would love to make her a stakes winner this year as I feel that is important.”
Before turning his attention to action on Town Moor, Burrows will go in pursuit of more pattern race glory later this month when sending Calendar Girl to Sandown Park for a tilt at the Group Three BetMGM Atalanta Stakes.
After missing the first half of the season, the daughter of Advertise made a triumphant return to action with an impressive win in the Listed Irish Stallion Farms Dick Hern Stakes at Haydock Park earlier this month.
He said: “Calendar Girl will now go for the Atalanta Stakes. She has come out of the Haydock race bouncing. There are not a lot of options keeping her against the fillies, and I’m keen to do that at the moment.
“If that went well I would probably let her roll the dice in the Sun Chariot. I couldn’t get her healthy in the spring for whatever reason. She literally had all of May turned out and she has come back in a different filly.
“It took me a while to get her fit as she did a bit too well. Callum (Rodriguez) said she was just a bit rusty from the three furlong to the two furlong pole as he just had to get hold of her a bit sooner than we thought, and if anything she hit the front sooner than ideal.
“It was great for Kennett Valley Syndicates as their members have been great as they potentially missed a Guineas trial in the spring before going on to other things.
“These things happen for a reason sometime, and it might be the best thing to happen to her that she had a break.”
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