HORSE RACING FIXTURES AND RESULTS

Temple Stakes Preview: Goldream to end losing run

John Ingles previews Saturday’s Temple Stakes at Haydock and picks out an ante-post bet.

The Temple Stakes sees the return to action of one of last season’s top sprinters Quiet Reflection. Her wins at three included the Sandy Lane Stakes on this same card and then a successful return visit to Haydock later in the year for the Sprint Cup, her second Group 1 success of the season after landing the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. As a recent Group 1 winner, Quiet Reflection has to give weight away all round but she boasted high-class form at her best last year (her Sprint Cup win, which came on soft ground, was the pick of her efforts) and comes out top on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings even so. More of a concern than her penalty is the fact that she lacks a recent run against race-fit rivals, not having been seen since a subdued effort at the end of a long season in the British Champions Sprint at Ascot. This will also be her first start at the minimum trip since her two-year-old days when she gained all three of her wins over five furlongs.

Quiet Reflection isn’t the only filly with a leading chance. Priceless represents the stable of Clive Cox, successful in last year’s Temple Stakes with Profitable. Her cv reads less impressively than Quiet Reflection’s, but she’s only recently found her optimum trip since being dropped to five furlongs, winning a listed race at Doncaster on her final start last season and beginning the current campaign with a storming five-length success in a similar event for fillies and mares at Bath last month. She had excuses last time in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, paying for being the first to commit for home in a strongly-run race.

Acapulco is yet another filly whose involvement in the finish wouldn’t come as a surprise. She’ll be best remembered in Britain for her impressive Queen Mary victory as a two-year-old and her second place when favourite for the Nunthorpe the same year. She won a couple of times in minor company for Wesley Ward back in the States last year and recently made a successful reappearance in a listed race at the Curragh on her first start for Aidan O’Brien. Acapulco – who’s in foal to Galileo, incidentally - would need to step up on the bare form of that win to figure here, but she gave the impression she was only doing the bare minimum and is still lightly raced.