Karl Burke has looked at the undulations on the Rowley Mile for the excuse of his previously unbeaten stable star Dandalla giving a poor performance in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes.
The star two year old started her career off at Newcastle when winning a Fillies Maiden by two lengths and off the back of that she stepped up to the Group Three Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and absolutely hosed up.
Over course and distance on her last run at Newmarket she landed the Group Two Duke Of Cambridge Stakes beating Fev Rover who has since franked the form by landing a Group Two in France.
The natural progression for this filly was to step into Group One company and having been favourite at one point, she had obvious claims but unfortunately did not handle the track and was outclassed by some of the more experienced juveniles.
Burke said: “She’s fine. She trotted up sound and ate up, and there’s nothing untoward.
She’s special! Dandalla wins the Albany by a street... #RoyalAscot @Ascot pic.twitter.com/kBhv7eYSFq
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 19, 2020
“We think she ran a very similar race to what she did at the July meeting. She changed her legs three times as soon as she started running downhill from the bushes, and just didn’t really lengthen.
“I’m not saying for one minute we would have got near the leaders, but it’s probably not her track.”
The experienced trainer plans to now give his filly a break before bringing her back next spring, where he is expecting big things for her three year old campaign.
He added: “We won’t run her again this year. We’ll prepare her for a spring campaign and probably have a go at one of the seven-furlong Guineas trials and take the season from there.
“We’ll probably aim for the race at Newbury (Fred Darling Stakes) if we were going to go down that route, but her homework will tell us where we are.
“We think we’ve still got a very good filly for next year.”