Dante Festival: Ryan Moore gets Inisherin call-up as Owen Burrows targets glory with Nakheel

Trained by Kevin Ryan, Inisherin finished sixth in the 2000 Guineas last season before reverting to sprinting with great success.

His year ended on a bit of a downer in the July Cup and he has subsequently undergone wind surgery.

Owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum has opted for a switch of jockey from Tom Eaves.

The same yellow and black silks will also be sported by Karl Burke’s Elite Status, one of three runners for the Spigot Lodge handler.

Clifford Lee rides Elite Status, Oisin Murphy is on Night Raider and Sam James partners Marshman.

Clive Cox fields Temple Stakes winner Kerdos, Royal Zabeel goes for Mick Appleby with Flora Of Bermuda and Rose Of Bamby completing the eight-runner field.

In the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes, Whirl will attempt to continue Aidan O’Brien’s dominance of the Classic trials.

Having won all three at Chester, both of Lingfield’s and Leopardstown’s key trial, O’Brien relies on a filly who won at Group Three level last term but who was well beaten at the same grade on her return to action.

Andrew Balding’s Serenity Prayer has been put in as favourite by Paddy Power at 5-2 off the back of an impressive debut at Newbury.

Ralph Beckett’s Smoken won both her starts last year impressively, including a Listed race at Newmarket while John and Thady Gosden’s Go Go Boots, owned by American chef Bobby Flay, is another unbeaten filly in the six-runner field.

Miss Tonnere represents Ed Walker with Tattycoram a second runner for Beckett.

Owen Burrows, meanwhile, is hoping his string can maintain its flying form this week in which two of his leading lights line up at York.

Group 2-winner Nakheel will run in Thursday’s Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Middleton Fillies Stakes.

Connections have chosen the extended mile and a quarter option ahead of the four-year-old’s other Dante Festival entry in the Boodles Yorkshire Cup, to be staged 24 hours later.

And unbeaten filly, Glittering Surf, entered at Royal Ascot for the Group 1 Coronation Stakes, will seek to enhance her credentials on Friday in the Sky Bet Fillies Stakes (registered as the Michael Seely Memorial Stakes).

The pair are at the centre of an exciting week of action for Burrows, who currently has an incredible 45 per cent strike-rate for 2025.

Lambourn-based Burrows said: “I’ve never started like this. I think we’re nine from 20 – that’s crazy stats and I know it won’t continue like that.

“Going into this season, I felt we had a decent bunch of horses. I’m thrilled with how they have run – credit to my team, everybody is working hard. This week, I’m looking forward to getting out Nakheel. I’ve got a one-time runner and winner last year – a Wootton Bassett filly (Sea Poetry) – running at Kempton on Thursday. I’ve got my first two-year-old runners this week, which is unheard of for me at this time of year! So that is exciting. It is going well and long may it continue.”

Lightly-raced Nakheel, who triumphed in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster, is kept to her own sex in the £150,000 Group 2 on the Knavesmire.

Burrows said: “She looks a bit sharper this year – we’ll give her a shot in the Middleton.

“We may have to take the boys on at some stage, but I just didn’t feel I wanted to do that first-time up over near enough a mile and six in the Cup.

“In an ideal world, I’d love York to have got a drop of rain. She does seem to appreciate a little bit of juice in the ground, but she goes on fast ground.

“Physically, she’s done very well through the winter – I’ve been very pleased with her. We need to get her season started.”