Lancashire Oaks
 

Anybody else amazed by the Lancashire Oaks result? A mare out of bumpers beats group and listed flat winners and did it pretty easily. I thought that sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen. <grin>

Ahh, but this filly is VERY good. Her trainer is very shrewd. Remember a horse named Collier Hill? He did the same with him, started him off in bumpers and ended up with a few Gr1 races with him. This filly looks just as good as he was, if not better.

It is a great way to do it for the smaller trainers. Buying well bred flat horses for next to nothing and giving them experience in bumpers (when you know they are good enough). It gives horses so much confidence when able to win that easily. Then transfer them to the flat when they have experience and their confidence is sky high.

She won again today, a star status awaits for this girl, trust me......

by David Lawrence


TURBO LINN may be supplemented for the Irish Field St Leger, trainer Alan Swinbank said on Sunday.

The unbeaten four-year-old chalked up her eighth victory at Newmarket on Saturday in the Listed Aphrodite Stakes, a success that could persuade her connections to splash out€30,000 to add her to the Group 1 at the Curragh on September 15.

Swinbank already has Collier Hill - who won the Irish St Leger in 2005 - and Alfie Flits entered in the 1m6f race.

"Turbo Linn is marvellous and she's come out of the race brilliant," said the trainer on Sunday.

"I was thinking, coming home from Newmarket, that if anything happened to Alfie Flits, I could put her in the Irish Leger.

"That race could be right up her street. The main thing is that we want to put a lot of thought into it as once you start stepping them up to one mile six, they could lose their speed over one mile four."
On Saturday, Swinbank pointed to the Group 2 Prix de Pomone on August 5 at Deauville, followed possibly by the Stockholm Cup on September 9, which he has won twice with Collier Hill.

However, he said on Sunday: "We may not even go to Stockholm yet. We'll probably try to get her to Deauville, though."

He added: "If everything went well, she could be a Gold Cup horse in two years time. Two miles plus would be up her street. She's got youth on her side."

Reflecting on her weekend win, Racing Post handicapper Paul Curtis said on Sunday: "We've given Turbo Linn a rating of 113 - a 6lb improvement on her mark from the Lancashire Oaks."

He added: "She still has a bit to find if she is going to make an impression in a race like the Irish St Leger, but there's no doubt she's progressive and I'm sure her connections know where they stand.

"Alan Swinbank has a great record for improving horses, as demonstrated by the likes of Collier Hill and Alfie Flits."

Except that Turbo Linn is anything but well-bred for the flat. Sire hasn't actually had any flat runners except her (and not many period). And female family is all jumpers for a couple of generations, complete with NH sires.

Add that to her race record and the bitch is still undefeated.

by David Carr



THE next chapter of the Turbo Linn fairytale is setto be written at Newbury, where the remarkable filly will put her unbeaten record on the line in next Saturday's Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes.

It will be a return to Pattern company for the four-year-old, who started out in bumpers but has made giant strides since and has quickly become one of the most popular horses in training thanks to wins in the Lancashire Oaks and a Listed race at Newmarket this summer.

“She will be entered on Monday for the Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury on Saturday,” trainer Alan Swinbank said on Friday.

“Hopefully, they will get a drop of rain, but the plan is to go there. Newbury does a marvellous job with watering, it will be one of the safest tracks in the country. I hope Neil Callan will be able to ride her again.”

Explaining the decision to go for the 1m5f event, Swinbank said: “There is not a lot else in the next three or four weeks and the owners don't want to put the money in to supplement for the Yorkshire Oaks - it is £26,000.

“She isonly four years old, so let us get this out of the way and then we will see where we go. She has only got a 4lb penalty for winning the Lancashire Oaks, the track will suit, it is a mile-five and that will suit, and there will be more frightened of us than we are frightened of them.”

Swinbank is also set to run recent Newcastle runner-up Sheekey in the two-year-old seven-furlong race on next Saturday's Newbury card.

No physical reason has come to light as to why Jamie Osborne's stayer Geordieland faded so quickly in the final furlong to finish fifth when 6-4 favourite for last week's Goodwood Cup.

When trained in France, Geordieland wore blinkers on one occasion when beaten fourth lengths in seventh by Manduro in the Group 2 Prix d'Harcourt. However, Osborne has no plan to fit the headgear again.

“We're just taking stock of the situation, and there's no race in mind for him at this stage,” he said.

by Tony Elves



ALAN SWINBANK was on Monday digesting a “hot” entry for the CGA Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury on Saturday, the intended next start for his star mare Turbo Linn.

The bumper winner turned Pattern-race heroine is on target to try to extend her unbeaten record to nine out of nine in the extended 1m5f contest but Swinbank is under no illusions to the enormity of the task after assessing the entries.

The four-year-old filly, winner of five bumpers, landed the rescheduled Group 2 Lancashire Oaks run at Newmarket's July festival on only her second start on the Flat and then gave weight all around when adding to that victory in a Listed event over the same course and distance ten day's later.

One of 12 Geoffrey Freer entries, which offers a prize of almost £27,000 to the winner, she could lock horns withPrincess of Wales's Stakes winner Papal Bull, Curragh Cup winner Peppertree Lane, the rejuvenated Classic Punch and “precautionary entry” Purple Moon, ante-post favourite for the Totesport Ebor.

“It looks a tough contest,” said Swinbank on Monday. “She is very well but she will have to be and it looks harder than I would have first thought.

“She's ridden every day to keep her going and she worked well with a very decent horse on Saturday morning but I never expected the race to be as hot as this.”

Purple Moon is almost certain to chase the larger pot of almost £125,000 for filling the same place at York.

Luca Cumani, trainer of the recent Listed Goodwood winner who gets in the Ebor off a mark of 101, said: “We will be monitoring the weather but if the weather is good and the ground at York is good then we'll go there. If York is flooded then we will have a look at the Newbury race but his entry there is very precautionary.”

Shahin, who dead heated for second in the Princess of Wales's Stakes, is also entered, as is Esher Stakes winner Balkan Knight.

I heard this morning that Jamie a h**e Spencer is riding her though. All chances out of the window now

:rolleyes:

Caught the end of a news story this morning and i think they said she won't be running because she is in season.

It's a shame.

She will be back though.

Thursday September 13 2007
Doncaster 15:10

Goffs/DBS Park Hill Stakes (Fillies' Group 2)
£100000.00 added, 3yo plus, 1m 7f, Class 1
21 runners
Going: Good to Firm, Good in places

3-51012 Allegretto (IRE) 22 4 9-7 Sir Michael Stoute R L Moore
111 Turbo Linn 54 4 9-7 G Swinbank N Callan
212-123 Anna Pavlova 23 4 9-4 R A Fahey
023501 Galistic (IRE) 57 4 9-4 P J Flynn
25605-0 Guilia 21 4 9-4 R Guest
1-02006 High Heel Sneakers 21 4 9-4 P F I Cole
4045-03 Mussoorie (FR) 21 4 9-4 J H M Gosden J Fortune
5-04000 Rising Cross 39 4 9-4 J R Best
6-10033 Trick Or Treat 22 4 9-4 J G Given T P Queally
464234 Under The Rainbow 22 4 9-4 B W Hills L Dettori
2-12321 Wannabe Posh (IRE) 21 4 9-4 J L Dunlop
521602 Wassfa 39 4 9-4 C E Brittain
12323 All My Loving (IRE) 60 3 8-6 A P O'Brien
210442 Brisk Breeze (GER) 21 3 8-6 H R A Cecil T E Durcan
0-2141 Downtown (IRE) 38 3 8-6 D Wachman
262314 Gull Wing (IRE) 21 3 8-6 M L W Bell
10-5111 Hi Calypso (IRE) 42 3 8-6 Sir Michael Stoute
1-10 Kayah 104 3 8-6 R M Beckett
0042 Lady Dedlock 19 3 8-6 C A Cyzer S Whitworth
2-30021 Sues Surprise (IRE) 13 3 8-6 B W Hills
2-61 Synopsis (IRE) 28 3 8-6 A Fabre

A very interesting race actually. On form you cannot really look past Turbo Linn, but with some improving three year olds at the bottom of the weights it might make things pretty tough for her.

All My Loving has run in all the top fillies races this year, and it looks like she has been crying out for this trip, she could be very dangerous.

Hi Calypso has done nothing but improve, and is another three year old going the right way. She will stay this trip. She still has plenty to find on the form book, but that wouldn't be out of the question.

Wannabe Posh is also a very consistant filly who will run her race every time.

Would love to see Turbo Linn win again, but it's going to be difficult for her.

Retired...

Wow, I forgot about this one.