Snellen on redemption trail at the Curragh this weekend

Molly Hunter
October 4, 2023 1:57 pm

Move up to a mile for Gavin Cromwell’s Royal Ascot-winning filly.

Gavin Cromwell’s Royal Ascot winner Snellen will bid to return to form in the Staffordstown Stud Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.

The Expert Eye filly was a winner on debut at Limerick in June, taking a seven-furlong maiden by three-quarters of a length in a field of 14.

Subsequently the two-year-old scored at Royal Ascot on her second run when landing the Listed Chesham Stakes at 12-1, coming home half a length ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s Pearls And Rubies.

Her next appearance was a step up to Group Two level in the Debutante Stakes at the Curragh, but she never seemed to be on a going day as she unseated Gary Carroll ahead of the start and then came home last of all.

Jockey Gary Carroll celebrates after winning the Chesham Stakes with horse Snellen on day five of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse (John Walton/PA)

An obvious cause for the uncharacteristic run never surfaced, but Cromwell has been happy with Snellen since and a return to action at the same track is planned for Saturday’s one-mile Group Three.

“We’re aiming her at the Curragh on Saturday, we’re hoping that not too much rain comes,” the trainer said.

“She seems to be back to herself and we’re hopeful of a nice run.

“She just wasn’t herself at all, she got very agitated and we never really got to the bottom of it but she seems to be back to herself now.”

There has been some encouraging collateral form since Royal Ascot, with Pearls And Rubies subsequently finishing second in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes, to which Cromwell said: “That was very good to see.”