3 minute read

Karl Burke is planning on going straight to the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot with Dramatised following her impressive win in a Newmarket maiden last month.

Sent off the 9-4 favourite for that HQ contest, the daughter of Showcasing showed plenty of speed to record a four-length victory on her first racecourse appearance.

Although one of the more taking two-year-old scorers this term, she showed there are still things that can be worked on having dwelt at the start and also displaying signs of greenness when edging left once hitting the front.

However, Burke doesn't see this as a problem and his confidence in the youngster is shown by the ambitious plan to head to Ascot with just one run under her belt.

"The plan is to go straight there (Royal Ascot) at the moment. There's not too many races we would want to run in before then and she's proven she can gallop at Newmarket, so I imagine it'll be straight to the Queen Mary," explained the Spigot Lodge handler.

"She was entitled to be green, so we're not worried about that, she will have learnt from that. We will see how she is training nearer the time, but she may have a racecourse gallop leading into the Queen Mary, that's not definite, but would be a possibility."

Burke has made a fine start to the season and the Middleham-based handler will be hoping to taste success at Yorke's Dante meeting this week.

The handler is poised to saddle three – Yahsat, Pillow Talk and Jungle Time – in the Marygate Stakes on Friday and with his two-year-olds operating at a strike-rate of upwards of 40 per cent, he will be hopeful of finding the scoresheet in the five-furlong Listed contest.

Yahsat and Jungle Time have both tasted success this season, but it is Pillow Talk, runner-up behind Clive Cox's Lost Angel from an outside draw at Nottingham on debut, that Burke thinks could light up the Knavesmire.

"They are three really nice fillies. Pillow Talk and Yahsat would be the stronger of the three, but Jungle Time is a nice filly in her own right and her owners were keen to have a go for some black type," said Burke.

"Yahsat's form was franked on Sunday. The colt (Jm Jungle) that finished five lengths behind her at Pontefract, he won at Hamilton yesterday and Pillow Talk ran a fantastic race first time up from stall one at Nottingham.

"I think Pillow Talk and the winner both broke the juvenile track record. I think if we'd have been drawn near them (Lost Angel and Radio Goo Goo) and just sat taking a lead off them on the rail, I'm pretty confident she would have beaten the winner.

"She's a filly with a lot of ability and it slightly surprised me she was able to do that first time up from that draw. She should, as all of mine do, take a big step forward and I think she will run a big race on Friday."