Exciting times for David Marnane with Lady Tilbury

Newly-formed syndicate have Queen Mary dream.

Lady Tilbury will be looking to give a new syndicate an immediate return on their investment in Wednesday’s Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The Bated Breath filly has won two of her three outings, finishing second on her debut, and beat the well-regarded Mehmar last time out.

She is trained by David Marnane who set up the MRC International syndicate only last year, so to have a Royal Ascot runner so soon has been a huge bonus.

“She’s very fast. She’s a lovely filly and we’re very lucky to have her. She’s quick, she settles, she’ll like that fast ground and runs through the line very well,” said Marnane.

“She’s got ticks in the right boxes, all we need now is a bit of luck and we’ll see how good she is.

“It was a good race she won last time and she clocked a quick time, but she was still green as she was very fresh for a couple of days afterwards, so we certainly didn’t get to the bottom of her there.”

The Queen Mary looks especially strong this year, with Wesley Ward’s Love Reigns, Karl Burke’s Dramatised and David O’Meara’s Maria Branwell, amongst others, defending unbeaten records.

“It does look a very strong race this year so the draw is going to be important,” said Marnane.

“We’ve had two Royal Ascot winners in handicaps (Settle For Bay and Dandy Boy) but it’s fantastic to be going with a two-year-old, she’ll be our first juvenile.

Settle For Bay was an easy winner of the Royal Hunt Cup for David Marnane in 2018
Settle For Bay was an easy winner of the Royal Hunt Cup for David Marnane in 2018 (John Walton/PA)

“It’s a new syndicate, too, and they had a winner the other day but he’s not going. They are a great bunch of people from all over the world so it’s great for them.

“We bought 20 yearlings this year, we’re planning to do the same next year and we’ve got a nice bunch, two have already won and we’ve only run four and we’re going to Royal Ascot already.

“We’ve always had lots of older horses around, never many two-year-olds, but when I looked back, some of our best horses like Dandy Boy, Settle For Bay and Elleval, they were all unraced horses coming into the yard.

“We all sat down to come up with a plan and this was it, to go stronger in the juveniles and as we’ve a great network around the world – Australians, Americans, Dubai, along with Ireland and England, we’ve got a great bunch of enthusiastic owners.

“It’s much more enjoyable in a group than on your own and we’ll definitely roll out another next year. They aren’t expensive horses but they are nice horses.

“The whole thing is very exciting and we can’t wait for Wednesday.”

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