5 runners for Lady Jane Cecil

Sir Henry died on Tuesday, and his widow Lady Jane Cecil has been granted a provisional license to keep the Newmarket stable running. If it sounds heartless that she is saddling her first runners only 2 days after his death , this is far from the case: Henry would certainly have approved and in fact he made the entries for these runners while practically on his deathbed. Jane certainly knows plenty about training thoroughbreds.

Not only was she Henry´s secretary for several years. her father was a trainer and so are her brothers Rae and Richard Guest. What is interesting is that she has 5 runners at 4 different racecourses, quite a logistical problem at the best of times. The most interesting runner is Tickled Pink, sent to Ireland with stable jockey Tom Queally ro contest the Group Three Ballyogan Stakes for fillies and mares over 6 furlongs at 20.30 CET at Leopardstown. Tickled Pink is penalised for winning a Group Three at Newmarket and then ran respectably - although well beaten- in a much stronger field for the Duke of York Stakes; that is by far the best form on offer in this race and she should win, with Scream Blue Murder (Tommy Stack/ Wayne Lordan) looking the best of the Irish hopes. The other group race on the card, over 7 furlongs at 19.55, should go to Reply (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien).

We expect Tickled Pink to win, but we don´t expect her to be Lady Jane´s first winner, as she has several good prospects running this afternoon in England. Pride of place goes to Morpheus (James Doyle), who runs in the mile maiden at 17.45 at Nottingham, He is a half-brother to Frankel, and while he is clearly far inferior to that champion, he should be good enough to beat today´s opposition. At Yarmouth, Songbird (Ian Mongan) has only 3 opponents to beat in the fillies handicap at 17.55; she made an excellent debut at Salisbury last month and is probably much better than a handicapper.

Lady Jane´s two runners at Newbury, Phaenomena and Rajaratna, in the two divisions of the 3yo filllies maiden at 14.50 and 15.50, are both ridden by Pat Cosgrave and owned by the Niarchos family. Both are extremely well-bred and it would be no surprise to see them winning as well. In fact it would be quite a surprise if the 5 Cecil runners returned home without at least one win, and the whole of the racing world will be wishing them well.

The emotional background means that they may start at very short prices, and from the betting point of view we recommend another Newmarket lady trainer: Ilka Gansera-Levesque, who saddles Crystal High (Mikael Barzalona) in the 10 furlongs handicap at 18.45 at Nottingham. Ilka has already shown that she knows what she is doing, and this 5yo, who was trained in France last year, is absolutely thrown in on his old form.