Monday 30 March 2015 10:29, UK
Jim Bolger has compared Lucida to his dual Classic-winning filly Finsceal Beo ahead of a likely tilt at the QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 3.
Finsceal Beo was a brilliant winner on the Rowley Mile in 2007 and after a narrow reverse in the French version, she got back on the winning trail in the Irish Guineas.
Like Finsceal Beo, the Godolphin-owned Lucida won Newmarket's Rockfel Stakes as a juvenile, but disappointed on her final appearance in the Fillies' Mile.
Bolger said: "She looks great, she already has her summer coat. It was the soft ground that caught her out at Newmarket and her form before that was very good.
"She's not far off her racing weight, so we are very much on target to send her straight to the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.
"Mind, we wouldn't be so keen on it if the ground was firm. She wouldn't want it soft either, she's one that wants it somewhere in between.
"I think a mile will be as far as she'll want to go. She's not unlike Finsceal Beo in a lot of ways."
Lucida is one of a number of fillies housed at Coolcullen with Classic aspirations.
The smart Stellar Glow and the unraced Elusive Approach are considered possible candidates for the Irish 1,000 Guineas, while Pleascach is likely to be campaigned with the Irish Oaks in mind.
"Stellar Glow didn't do too much wrong last year and we're hoping she can build on that. She's about four or five weeks off a run and we'd be aiming for the Irish Guineas with her," Bolger said in a stable tour on www.attheraces.com.
"We'd be hopeful she can improve from two to three and I think she will get a mile and a quarter.
"Elusive Approach is a grand big mare that could be anything really. I maybe let her get a little bit bigger than I should have over the winter, so she won't be out very early, but I'm hoping I'll have enough time to get her to the Irish 1,000 Guineas.
"Pleascach is a lovely filly that I'm looking forward to. She didn't come out of her win at Leopardstown all that well, so we gave her some time and by the time she was ready again, the ground was gone to soft so we let her off.
"The plan is that she'll go to Navan for the Salsabil Stakes next month, then the Musidora, then the Irish Oaks. She'll stay a mile and a half."
Bolger also has a clutch of exciting colts in his care, including Hall Of Fame, who claimed the notable scalp of John F Kennedy before running well behind Gleneagles twice.
Bolger said: "He's had a minor setback. I had him in mind as a Guineas horse, but I don't think he'll make the race now.
"It would only be touch and go whether he'll be back in time for the Irish Guineas. The drop to seven furlongs wasn't ideal for him last year, but when you get those races on those days, you have to give it a go. I think he'll stay a mile and a half in due course.
"Parish Boy is a nice prospect. I was very impressed with him at Leopardstown, I thought he quickened up nicely. Unfortunately, he doesn't do much at home, so we won't really know where he's at until we get him to the races.
"He'll probably start off in the 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown and if he got a cut in the ground he'd probably run in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, but otherwise he'll wait for the Irish 2000 Guineas. He's bred to stay a mile and a half and I hope he might make up into an Irish Derby horse.
"Answered is a good type of horse that has done well over the winter. A big strong horse, a great looker. He picked up a fracture in the middle part of last season, but he recovered well from it. We'd like to start him off in a race like the Mooresbridge and that run will tell us where we should go with him after that.
"We had hopes he would be a Group One horse last year and I'd be optimistic that he might hold his own at that level this season. He'd like an ease in the ground and he could well end up trying a mile and a half."
