Dreamloper and Primo Bacio handed Goodwood goals

Adam Morgan
July 13, 2022 11:57 am

Ed Walker eyeing Nassau and Oak Tree Stakes bids.

Ed Walker is targeting Goodwood redemption for his star fillies Dreamloper and Primo Bacio as he prepares the duo for action on the Sussex Downs later this month.

Having started her season by claiming Group Two glory in the Dahlia Stakes, before striking overseas when plundering the Group One Prix d’Ispahan at ParisLongchamp, Dreamloper was never a threat in her most recent outing in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh.

Keen for the majority of that 10-furlong contest, she was reported to be never travelling on ground that wasn’t to her liking and her handler is keen to put a line through that effort.

The Pretty Polly was Dreamloper’s first try at a mile and a quarter and she is set to stick at that distance for her next outing, with the Nassau Stakes during the Qatar Goodwood Festival a race Walker believes will suit her well.

📸 Its a close one!
There’s three in a line but it’s Dreamloper who lands the Dahlia Stakes by the smallest of margins! 😳pic.twitter.com/3bA2UHRRo6

— Great British Racing (@GBRacing) May 1, 2022

“She’s great, thankfully she’s come out of the Curragh really well,” said Walker.

“It was a bit of a no show really and if I had my time again, I would have scratched her. It was a bit of a shame as we ummed and ahed over whether to go. We were always going to the Pretty Polly, then changed our minds and were thinking Falmouth and then back to the Pretty Polly and as it turned out the Falmouth on very fast ground would have been the better spot probably.

“But that’s life and she’s come out of the race good and now we’ll head to the Nassau Stakes and hope this weather holds good and we get some good summer ground. An easy 10 furlongs should be ideal for her.”

Primo Bacio, here ridden by Andrea Atzeni (right) at York, is set to drop back in trip to seven furlongs (Alan Crowhurst/PA)

Similar sentiments also apply to stablemate Primo Bacio, who struggled to land a blow in a red-hot renewal of the Falmouth Stakes during Newmarket’s July Festival. The four-year-old is now set to drop back in trip, with the Oak Tree Stakes over seven furlongs, also on the Sussex Downs, a possible next target.

Walker continued: “It was a solid run (in the Falmouth), if not slightly disappointing. It probably wasn’t up to the same level as her performance in it the previous year, but she ran fine. It was hard to make up ground and the pace held up well.

“We’re going to lower our sights with her a little bit and bring her back in trip. We could head to the Oak Tree at Goodwood.”