3 minute read
Tony Coyle has his fingers crossed for a wet week in the Epsom area as he prepares Lily Rules for the Investec Oaks.
The daughter of Aussie Rules went down by a length and a half to Madame Chiang on soft ground in the Musidora Stakes at York, and with an unsettled weather forecast, connections opted to take the £30,000 plunge and supplement her into the Classic field.
Malton-based Coyle said: " She is ready to go and the more rain, the better for her."
He added: "She loves cut in the ground and it looks like that there will be plenty of it next week, so that's what swayed it for us. She goes on good going but she is just more effective on soft because she handles it better than a lot of other fillies.
"We fancied her to run a big race at York. She was very unlucky in the Nell Gwyn at Newmarket - when the gaps came, she wasn't quite quick enough to go for them because seven furlongs is way too short for her.
"She started off over five furlongs but she is out of a Giant's Causeway mare and ran well over a mile in a Listed race at Haydock Park last year, when she was third and Chriselliam was second.
"What she lacks in ability, she makes up for in toughness - she is as tough as old boots. We are going down to Epsom Downs hopeful rather than confident and we would be over the moon if she finished in the first five."