Beo Poised For Coronation

Finsceal Beo gets another chance to showcase her talents when she contests what looks a red-hot renewal of the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot tomorrow.

The flying filly already has three victories at Group One level to her name, but rather than being allowed to rest on her laurels, trainer Jim Bolger has kept her extremely busy.

And before she is allowed to drift off to the paddocks and enjoy her retirement, her handler has his sights set on turning her into a racing great.

'She is very well and I am very happy with her. I would be hoping to make it to double digits with her in terms of Group One victories at some stage in the future,' he said.

'She has won three already so she is one third of the way there. She is very sound and her owners like to travel.'

After winning the Prix Marcel Boussac at two, she blitzed her rivals in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, a victory which was extremely sweet for Bolger after his champion two-year-old Teofilo had to miss the 2000 Guineas through injury.

Seven days later, however, Bolger asked her to produce her best once more in the French equivalent and she was just caught by Darjina, who takes her on again.

She pulled off a famous Guineas double though by proving how tough she was in winning the Irish Guineas at the Curragh.

Bolger tended to blame the rain-softened ground for her reverse in France and his one hope is for a nice racing surface.

'She had a pipe-opener on Tuesday. We would prefer good ground but we can´t do anything about it,' reasoned the County Carlow handler.

But connections of her Longchamp conqueror are relatively confident of repeating the dose.

'I don´t know if she has progressed at all since her last race but she has certainly showed us that she is doing very well,' said Georges Rimaud, racing manager to the Aga Khan, whose daughter Princess Zahra owns Darjina.

'We have certainly not seen anything in the meantime to make us change our mind about bringing her for this race and I suppose you could say she will have moved on slightly.

'She has only had three runs in her life so I would hope that there is a degree of improvement ? but she will need it to be able to perform at her best.

'We are happy with her and she has the right to run in the race. It looks a great race, though, bringing together the Guineas form from four different countries.

'We have already had one French winner this week with Manduro so hopefully we can have another.'

Rahiyah was beaten just over a length and a half in third place at Longchamp, but her rider Ted Durcan is hopeful Jeremy Noseda´s filly can turn the tables on the big two.

'I would have preferred a better draw, but it was a similar situation in the French Guineas,' said Durcan.

'She ran a magnificent race in France on what was her first race of the season and she hasn´t got that much to make up on the first two.'

Adding to the continental flavour of the race is the German Guineas winner Mi Emma, trained by Andreas Wohler.

She comes into the race unbeaten and has won her three career starts by an aggregate of nearly 20 lengths.

'She´s fine, everything has gone well so far and she arrived safely,' said Wohler.

'It is very exciting. It is a very tough race ? there are some very good fillies in the race ? but after her form in Germany she deserves the chance to take them on.

'Darjina and Finsceal Beo look very good but we are ready to take them on.

'She will run a good race, I am sure of that, but how good she is we will see.

'Her form is working out really well in Germany but how it compares to the rest of Europe I am not sure.

'I have had a couple of runners at Ascot before without much luck but none have been as good as this filly.'

(C) PA Sport