Venetian Sun pencilled in for Newmarket gallop

Venetian Sun is set to fine tune her preparations for the Betfred 1000 Guineas with an early sighter of the Rowley Mile during the Craven meeting.

While some fillies will be putting their Classic credentials to the test in the Nell Gwyn next week, connections of the Royal Ascot and Prix Morny winner will keep their powder dry until the first weekend in May, instead first heading to Newmarket for a gallop rather than a competitive outing.

“Karl (Burke) was talking about about taking her down to Newmarket and giving her a bit of work on the track,” said Sean Graham, racing manager for Tony Bloom, who owns the horse alongside Ian McAleavy.

“She won’t go to one of the trials before the 1000 Guineas and the intention is to go straight to the Guineas because being a Group One winner she’d have to carry a penalty in the trials, so we decided against doing that.

“I suppose the doubt in some people’s minds is being by Starman, will she get a mile? But she’s extremely relaxed at home and also on the track.

“Karl has been bringing her along very steadily, and has been very happy with her. Fingers crossed everything goes well and we can look forward to Newmarket on the first weekend of May.”

Venetian Sun is as short as 7-1 with some bookmakers for the opening fillies’ Classic of the year, while Bloom and McAleavy also have legitimate Oaks aspirations with the William Haggas-trained My Ophelia, who is 16-1 for Epsom success having impressed on debut at Newbury last autumn.

A small early-season hold-up has led to a change of plan, but there is still hope she will take in an Oaks trial before lining up on the Surrey Downs in June.

Graham added: “My Ophelia just had a slight setback and the plan was to give her a run in a novice before going for one of the trials, but now we’ve probably missed a couple of weeks with her the novice has gone out the window and we may have to go straight to a trial.

“We’ll wait and see. Tony is extremely patient with his horses and so is William Haggas, so we’ll let her tell us when she’s ready.”