Unbeaten Frankel filly Al Asifah set to run in Irish Oaks

The daughter of Frankel, from the family of Awtaad, was a taking winner of her maiden at Haydock last month and looked potentially out of the top drawer when running out a six-and-a-half length winner of the Listed Weatherbys/British EBF Agnes Keyser Fillies Stakes on Sunday.

The Curragh Classic was initially mooted as the next intended target and it remains that way - with the only other option being the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot next week.

Speaking on Monday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast Shadwell Estates racing manager Angus Gold said: “Obviously when they’re bred like she is and they look like she does you are very hopeful that they’re going to be pretty smart.

"You need to see it on the track first of all though and John (Gosden) was a little bit worried at Goodwood because you never quite know how they’re going to handle the track and she’s quite a rangy filly, but as it turned out it looked like she handled it pretty well.

“John and I spoke very briefly and if we had an extra week on our hands we’d obviously be thinking Ribblesdale. I’m just assuming it will come too quick. I haven’t spoken to him since and if he were to say 'she’s absolutely bouncing out of the race’ well then that’s another conversation.

“If we are to keep her to three-year-old fillies-only the Irish Oaks is the obvious target. The other thing is the trip. She’s won twice at a mile-and-a-quarter and showed plenty of speed on Sunday off what Jim Crowley felt was a slowly-run race.

"I’ve always personally felt she’s a mile-and-a-half filly in the making but I’ve never ridden her but he definitely got that impression as well hence why we’re thinking as we are but it we don’t want to go to Ireland we’ll have to look at the programme book abroad or take on the older horses over here.”

Gold had news too of the Owen Burrows stars Anmaat and Hukum who have big race targets in the near future.

“I saw them both on Friday. Touch wood Anmaat has come out of France really well on the face of it. The original thought was to wait and look at the Coral-Eclipse and see if that’s an option for him. I’ve always quietly thought he might stay a little further and we’ll only know when we try but it wouldn’t surprise me if he went an extra furlong," he said.

“I saw in the paper Hukum is favourite for the Hardwicke and it was asked if there was rain before Ascot and soft ground should we supplement for the Prince Of Wales’s? I’m putting that conversation off as I can’t see any rain around but I’ll leave others to decide that bit.

"Again the mid-summer plan was to try and get him to the King George at Ascot and the Hardwicke initially seemed the obvious place to go but we’ll see what the weather does over the next few days and what the forecast is before we go firm on any plans."

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