Anthelia has already scooped a huge prize for connections this season and Rod Millman’s Super Sprint scorer is set to go in quest of further riches at York next week.
The four-time winner – who was bought for just £6,000 by her handler at the sales as a yearling – denied Eve Johnson Houghton’s Havana Hurricane by a short head at Newbury and will now try to replicate those heroics on the Knavesmire in the valuable Harry’s Half Million By Goffs sales race.
“She’s come out of the race perfectly well,” said Tim Palin of owners Middleham Park Racing. “It’s a good form line as well, Havana Hurricane has come out and franked the form in the Richmond and I know he didn’t win it, but he was arguably a little bit unlucky.
“She’s won four of her first five races, and Rod slightly blames himself for the Empress Stakes for getting the tactics slightly wrong, but other than that blip, she’s been flawless.
“Obviously there are decisions to make of where do we go, but in theory, we’ll probably go to Harry’s Half Million at the Ebor meeting in York.”
The Race
Anthelia’s sole defeat came when upped to six furlongs in the Empress Stakes at Newmarket, but connections have no fears about tackling the distance for a second time in a race that has a total prize-fund of over £500,000 and the Middleham team won with Shouldvebeenaring in 2022.
“Seeing is believing, but her pedigree and her style of racing suggests she will get six (furlongs) and it was just the tactics that got her beat last time,” continued Palin.
“She was very strong through the line at Salisbury, she was strong through the line in the National Stakes and she was strong through the line at five furlongs at Newbury.
“In a race like the Harry’s Half Million, they are going to go a mad pace and you are going to have to have five-furlong pace and stay six furlongs to win the race.
“She ought to get six furlongs and she only just got up on the line in the Super Sprint, so with another half-furlong she might have won another half-length.
“It is such a lucrative pot with almost £250,000 to the winner and you’re probably going to win more for finishing third in the Harry’s Half Million than you would next year for winning a Group Three. It’s definitely worth going down that route.”
Connections are inclined to dream big with the bargain buy who has turned to gold and a strong showing in Yorkshire could see the daughter of Supremacy step into Group company later in the campaign.
Salisbury Visit
The Anthelia team have their eye on a visit to Salisbury next month, which could prove a suitable stepping stone to a Cheveley Park Stakes tilt against some of the best sprinting juvenile fillies of the season.
“She’s going to have an entry in the Cheveley Park because it could be a small field,” added Palin.
“She might go to the Dick Poole as well, and it could be Harry’s Half Million, Dick Poole, then potentially Newmarket if she wins one or both of those.
“If we come up a little bit short and we aren’t quite a Group filly, then we’ve always got the Listed race which we’ve already won and then the Redcar Trophy in October.
“So if we come unstuck in the Harry’s Half Million or the Dick Poole, we probably wouldn’t go down the Cheveley Park route but go down the Redcar route.”
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