Gabriel to go down Oaks Avenue Connections of Avenue Gabriel are already looking forward to a middle-distance campaign next year following her creditable fifth in the Shadwell Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket last Friday. The daughter of Champs Elysees has won two of her five starts this season including the Listed Flame Of Tara EBF Stakes, and was placed behind Tapestry in the Group 2 Friarstown Stud Debutante Stakes also at the Curragh. Trainer Paul Deegan said, “She has been taken out of the Prix Marcel Boussac and won’t run again this year. She has done more than enough, and is a staying type of filly. “A mile and a quarter to a mile and a half is what she’ll want, and she might start off next year in the Oaks Trial at Naas and then hopefully onto the Irish Oaks. “Having said that connections felt after her run at Nemarket that she might warrant a second entry into the Irish 1,000 Guineas and, if the ground came up a bit slow, she could go there. “I walked the mile both up and down the track at Newmarket and it was proper fast English ground. Coming down into the dip just found her out a bit. “She just likes to get her toe into the ground. I think she could be a Group 1 filly given the right conditions, and has already shown that she’s competitive at that level. She is so tough and genuine.”
