Davison hopes for more Sapphire Stakes joy with She’s Quality

Three years on from saddling Mooniesta to win the Barberstown Castle Sapphire Stakes, Jack Davison will attempt to repeat the feat with the improving hat-trick seeker She’s Quality.

Mooniesta’s 2021 success gave Davison the biggest victory of his training career, but he could now have a high-class prospect capable of even better on his hands.

Highly regarded as a two-year-old, she served notice of her potential when bolting up on a raiding mission to Newbury and ended her juvenile season competing at the highest level.

Campaigned as a sprinter this term, the daughter of Acclamation went close in the Listed Polonia Stakes earlier in the year before gathering momentum with back-to-back victories recently.

She is now ready for a return to group company and, feeling he has cracked what conditions She’s Quality requires to thrive, her handler is excited to see her showcase her class at the Curragh.

“She’s in really good form at the minute and seems to be getting better and faster and is still only young,” said Davison.

“I still think she is progressive and I’m really looking forward to seeing what she can do in Group Two company.

“She is quality and was probably a bit unfurnished last year. We were just always learning about her last year and I think now we’ve found her preferred conditions and ground. The more practice she gets, the better she is becoming.

“She is working really, really well at home and I’m looking forward to it.”

A trio of British fillies and mares undertake a raiding mission and Ed Walker’s Makarova heads to Ireland instead of Goodwood following her recent Coral Charge win, with the Lambourn handler eager to strike again while the iron is hot.

The consistent mare has been sparked back to life since wearing blinkers at Royal Ascot and Hector Crouch will once again do the steering.

“It was either this or the King George at Goodwood and I just felt that hopefully the ground will be more in her favour in Ireland,” said Walker.

“I think the nature of the Curragh will suit her better than Goodwood as well and although it is quite a quick turnaround, she is fresh and well and has come out of her race really well and we’ll roll the dice.

“Hector Crouch is over there and he rides which is another box ticked and I think she goes there with a good chance.

“She has been slow into her stride which I think has cost her a few races over the years, but she jumped much better and travelled much better at Sandown than she has in some of her races.

“We put blinkers on her at Ascot before that and I think that has just sharpened her up a little and helped. She’s been a star and we love her dearly and hopefully she can add to her profile between now and the end of the year.”

George Boughey’s Achilles Stakes winner Believing finished fourth in both the King Charles III Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and crosses the Irish Sea with her reputation enhanced.

The Highclere Thoroughbred Racing-owned four-year-old will be ridden by Ryan Moore for the first time in this five-furlong event.

He told Betfair: “Valiant Force obviously has to be respected on his juvenile form but Believing brings the best recent form to the table in this Group Two. I haven’t ridden her before but her brace of Group One efforts at Royal Ascot speak for themselves in this grade.”

Also making the trip is Karl Burke’s Beautiful Diamond, who finished last season as a Listed winner at Ayr and returned to the Scottish coast to dead-heat with the useful Azure Blue last month.

Always held in high regard, she has a third at Royal Ascot and a third in group company on reappearance to her name as the daughter of Twilight Son returns to a higher level.

“I’m hoping the ground dries out because I’m sure she is better on fast ground,” said Philip Robinson, racing manager for owner Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum.

“The quicker the ground the better for her and it is not going to be easy up against the likes of Believing, who has been running out of her skin recently – if she turns up in her best form she is going to be very difficult to beat.

“I don’t think she will be far away and is very speedy and very gutsy. I think the only below-par performance was when she ran on easier ground at Haydock (in the Temple Stakes). She was still trying, it just wasn’t really her surface.

“If the ground keeps drying, the faster it gets the better chance she has got of getting her head in front. She will be close and in with a chance because she’s a trier, but there could be one or two who are difficult to turn over.”