Rogue Passion goes into Friday's bet365 Fillies' Mile with a live chance according to big-race jockey Rossa Ryan.
The Rogues Gallery Racing-owned daughter of Sioux Nation has been one of the juvenile stories of the season so far, improving from Catterick and Carlisle maiden defeats to break her duck at the Cumbrian venue in August and follow up in Group 2 company in France last month.
Ryan got the leg-up on Ed Bethell's representative for the first time when coming from the back of the pack to run down Amusingly in the Group 2 Qatar Prix d'Aumale on September 6. That piece of form received a couple of notable boosts during Arc weekend at ParisLongchamp and Ryan is now weighing up how best to tackle the unbeaten Godolphin hope Musical Times in Friday's Group 1 feature on day one of Newmarket's Future Champions Festival.
Speaking on a Thursday press call, Ryan said: "Obviously, the form has worked out well. The Godolphin filly (Musical Times) was impressive in Newmarket but we couldn't have stronger form going into it without taking her on and I'd imagine any bit of rain that's come will loosen the ground up a bit and suit her well. She's not the biggest but she's all there and she's compact with a low centre of gravity, so should be well balanced down the hill (Dip).
"She's probably a filly that's happy dropping right in as she has a good turn of foot, and she also gets a mile so she's ideal really. We'll find out if she's a Group 1 filly tomorrow but I'd say if she was Aidan O'Brien (trained) and Coolmore-owned she'd be vying for favouritism, so it's a great position to be in."
Regarding the Prix d'Aumale defeat of subsequent Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Amusingly and how that race panned out, the rider feels there was no element of fluke about it.
"She went in there at a big price but I was looking through and her Carlisle form is actually very good and it's such a stiff, uphill climb in Carlisle - winning over seven furlongs there you have to stay well," Ryan said.
"To be honest, Ed left it to me and it was more a case of drop her in, you're going to be on the fence, then ride her for a bit of luck and come home. But everything opened up and when I got that gap, and Colin (Keane, aboard Amusingly) had got first run on me, my filly picked up really well and went through the line well.
"So my first words to Ed were that she's got enough speed for six furlongs but stays the mile well.
"I think the biggest thing at Newmarket is that she just needs to relax early on, once we do that I wouldn't be scared to have one right crack at William (Buick) late on."
Bethell is equally effusive and won't be surprised to see his filly run a big race on the Rowley Mile.
"We've always thought she was a nice filly, she was arguably unlucky not to win on her second start," he said. "Then she blew them away on her third start, but we always felt she was above average before she started racing.
"It was always whether or not she was going to be able to take that next step as quickly as she did, that might have been a surprise but we were always confident she was a stakes filly - it was just about finding the right set-up and France looked like that.
"It's very hard to say (if she's improved again), she's always done all she needs to do in her work at home and I'm very happy and pleased with her preparation. Fingers crossed she can run a big race.
"We're a Group 2 winner and there's not a whole lot left for her so we've got to roll the dice somewhere and we've chosen to come here. We'll keep fingers tightly crossed."
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