Estrange team keen on Haydock comeback with ground a key factor

Ground conditions will dictate where star mare Estrange will kick off her season, with a return to Haydock next month seen as the most likely starting point.

The Cheveley Park Stud-owned grey won the Lester Piggott Stakes and the Lancashire Oaks on Merseyside last season before finishing best of the rest behind Minnie Hauk in the Yorkshire Oaks at York during the summer.

With a planned tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe ruled out due to a dirty scope, David O’Meara’s stable star instead signed off her 2025 campaign on Champions Day at Ascot and again filled the runner-up spot, this time behind defending champion Kalpana in the Qipco British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes.

“She seems very well in herself and she’s relatively lightly-raced. She looks great and she’s obviously a mare we have some expectations for going forward,” said Cheveley Park’s managing director Chris Richardson.

“I was up at David’s about 10 days ago and she’s certainly not lost any enthusiasm, I can say that.

“The weather is the trouble – we just need rain. She’s in the Middleton Stakes at York (May 14), but my feeling would be we’ll go back to Haydock for the Lester Piggott Stakes (May 39). Once again it’s the question of the ground, but the chances are they might get a bit of moisture on the west coast and that might be ideal.

“We’ll have a look at the obvious options, similar races to what we ran in last year. We might consider the Pretty Polly in Ireland, there’s Haydock again (Lancashire Oaks) and York (Yorkshire Oaks) and if we’re lucky enough to be able to put the Arc in as her main target at the end of the year that would be great.”

Another O’Meara-trained filly for whom the Cheveley Park team have high hopes is Princesse d’Orange, who made an impressive start to her career with a dominant front-running victory at Beverley on Wednesday as a hot favourite.

The speedy daughter of Ardad looks set to step up in class at York’s Dante Festival in a bid to book her ticket to Royal Ascot.

Richardson added: “It’s unusual for us to have a two-year-old runner in April, but when I was up at the yard recently she was certainly catching the eye on the gallops and she was impressive at Beverley.

“I think we’ll go to the Marygate at York and see where we go from there, but obviously we’re dreaming of bigger things, possibly in June.”