Timepiece on track to join in York race

HIGH-class mare Timepiece is on target to line up at York in the £100,000 Betfred Middleton Stakes on May 17.

The daughter of Zamindar – a stablemate of wonderhorse Frankel who stepped up his comeback form injury yesterday – is among 21 fillies remaining for the Group Two contest that will be staged on the second day of the 2012 Dante Festival.

Trained by Sir Henry Cecil, Timepiece gained a first Group One success when taking the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket last July.

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Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager to Timepiece’s owner Khalid Abdulla, said: “The programme for older fillies’ is so enticing that we decided to keep her in training for another year.

“She is a scopey filly so we hope there will be some improvement to come this year. Sir Henry has been pleased with her and she will be campaigned mainly over a mile and a quarter as we feel this may be her best trip now.”

Given the previous success of Midday from the same connections in the York race, she is certainly one to watch.

But, inevitably, most Flat interest revolves around Frankel – last year’s 2000 Guineas hero is on course to reappear at Newbury next month before a possible tilt at York’s Juddmonte International in August.

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His light piece of work yesterday impressed connections. “It was nothing very much, it was just a gentle piece, but he strode out well and everyone was very pleased,” said Grimthorpe. “We’ll just see how we go. It was his first bit of work after the injury and he’s going to have to continue to please everyone.”

Frankel has also been given entries in both the one-mile Queen Anne Stakes and the 10-furlong Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.

It means the four-year-old will almost certainly avoid a clash with Black Caviar at Royal Ascot – the Australian mare is the undoubted star attraction among entries from 11 countries for the Group One races at the June meeting.

The Diamond Jubilee Stake is the most likely target for Peter Moody’s unbeaten horse is to travel to the UK in early June following two prep races in Adeliade.

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The six-year-old, unbeaten in 19 starts starts, could lead a female Australian team unprecedented in strength including her stablemate King’s Rose, Ortensia (trained by Paul Messara) and Australia’s champion miler More Joyous (Gai Waterhouse).

INVESTEC will continue to back the Epsom Derby Festival until 2021 after agreeing a 10-year extension – the biggest sponsorship agreement in British racing history – to their current deal.

The extension will see the Investec Derby reinstated as the richest race in the UK offering a prize fund of £1.325m this summer.

RAIN continues to play havoc with the fixture list. Yesterday’s meeting at Hereford was abandoned, with steeplechase races omitted at the prestigious Punchestown Festival in Ireland.

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Today’s Punchestown card will have to pass an early morning inspection, while Uttoxeter’s fixture fell by the wayside yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile the weather needs to relent for racing to take place at Leicester on Saturday – an inspection is planned today.

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