Saffie Osborne excited ahead of Touleen trial

Saffie Osborne is relishing the opportunity to partner Touleen when she puts her 1000 Guineas credentials to the test in the Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Newbury on Saturday.

More commonly known as the Fred Darling, the Group Three event is often a key stepping stone to Classic action, with Owen Burrows’ smart filly out to confirm the promise of her two opening victories last year, having subsequently run below par when favourite for the Rockfel Stakes on her final juvenile state.

Burrows found legitimate excuses for that performance and having got well acquainted with the daughter Lope De Vega, Osborne is looking forward to deputising for the injured Jim Crowley in the famous Shadwell silks.

“It’s a real honour to pick up this ride for Sheikha Hissa and the Shadwell team and I’m very excited to ride her,” said Osborne.

“I’ve ridden her plenty over the last six weeks or so and sat on her last on Wednesday. She always feels great, she’s a beautiful filly who does things with a lot of ease.

“She’s proven in a lesser grade how smart she is but she’s clearly got a lot of ability. You can feel her class, she has the most beautiful action and a big engine and her work has been very good. I’m very excited.”

Catching The Moon has leading claims for the newly-formed father and son training partnership of Richard and Peter Fahey.

The No Nay Never filly rounded off her juvenile year with a Group Three win in the Firth of Clyde Stakes at Ayr over six furlongs and connections hope to have a clearer idea of whether she is a legitimate Guineas contender after she tackles seven furlongs this weekend under Ryan Moore.

“She’s a very exciting filly and we’re looking forward to it,” Peter Fahey told Sky Sports Racing.

“It’s very much a learning activity, running here over seven furlongs. She’s by No Nay Never, which is where the speed influence obviously comes from and she is a filly that seems to have a lot of natural speed, but when you go through the family on the dam’s side they can stay any trip you want.

“She’s done well over the winter and she’s a filly that tries very hard, so you don’t have to be very hard on her.

“She is just a little bit backward in her coat after the sort of winter we’ve had. When it’s getting up to 20C in the day and then drops to 1C at night, it’s very hard for the fillies to know what time of year it is.”

Other hopefuls include once-raced winners K Sarra (Ralph Beckett), Domina Ignis (Kevin Philippart de Foy) and Stimulative Trip (David Menuisier).

Stimulative Trip’s debut success came over this course and distance last June and her trainer said: “She won well at Newbury before she ended the year with one or two little niggles, nothing serious, but enough to be unable to run again last season.

“I’m sure she will improve physically for this weekend’s run. She’s in the French 1000 Guineas, she needs to run a race to see whether she is a candidate or not.”

De Foy said of his hooded Southwell scorer: “We are treating this firmly as a trial and not her target although she will have improved from her first.

“We just need to make sure she does things the right way round as she was ‘on it’ enough at Southwell first time out over six furlongs. She’s a breeze-up filly and knew her job that day but we just need to make sure she relaxes.

“We’ll find out a lot more about her ability, but it’s much more about doing things the right way round.

“I think with the way we will ride her she will get the seven furlongs, there is obviously a big question mark over a mile for the future though as she showed a lot of speed over six furlongs at Southwell. That could be another big step, but at least after this we will have another clue.”