NAP of the Day: O’Brien & Moore to strike again on Friday

Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore teamed up to win the G2 Kingdom Of Bahrain July Stakes at Newmarket on Thursday with Whistlejacket – my NAP of the Day at 11/8 – and I’m backing the all-conquering duo to strike again at HQ on Friday.

When I first looked at the market for the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes – a Group 2 for two-year-old fillies over six furlongs – on Thursday morning, HEAVENS GATE was trading at 4/1 in places, which I must say looked very generous.

The markets have since settled and she’s into 9/4 as per the 14:25 Newmarket Odds at time of publication, which remains NAP material.

O’Brien’s Churchill filly made her debut over the minimum trip at Navan back in early May, finishing second by half a length to a subsequent Group 3 runner, and followed up with a comfortable success in a more competitive maiden at the Curragh later that month.

She was over two lengths clear of stablemate January, who got off the mark at the next attempt before placing in a Group 2 over course and distance, in County Kildare, evidencing a significant amount of improvement.

Connections then sent her to Royal Ascot – more specifically the G3 Albany Stakes – and she improved again to come third of 16, beaten just a length by her extremely exciting stablemate Fairy Godmother.

The latter was Ballydoyle’s first-string that day, and therefore the mount of the incredible Ryan Moore, but he takes the reins aboard the selection here which is of course a huge positive.

Heavens Gate holds the reopposing Mountain Breeze on the Albany form. She was over two lengths ahead of Charlie Appleby’s runner and it’s my opinion that the selection has more scope for further improvement, so I make a form reversal unlikely.

Gavin Cromwell’s Mighty Eriu is very interesting as you wouldn’t associate the County Meath handler with flat sprinters, but she has some excellent form to her name including her second in the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot over the minimum trip. She’s a definite danger.

In turn, you can’t rule out Maw Lam – actually the highest-rated horse in the field – who was only a place behind Mighty Eriu in Berkshire. However, she was 50/1 that day having previously gone down to a 125/1 shot at Beverley, so I’m cautious about her chances.

I’m not going to assess the other seven runners in great detail, but each and every one of them have something to find on Heavens Gate and while they are lightly-raced juveniles with improvement likely, I just can’t see any of them progressing past the selection.

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