Aloof aiming to blow away Naas rivals
David Wachman believes he will learn plenty about Aloof as she lines up in a competitive renewal of the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Blue Wind Stakes at Naas on Wednesday.
A daughter of Galileo out of the good sprinter Airwave, she surprisingly relished the step up to middle distances last time out.
Having chased home Wading and then won at Dundalk last November, she won a decent contest back on the all-weather on her reappearance and still holds an entry in the Investec Oaks.
“It’s all about trying to get some black type with these fillies,” said Wachman.
“She’d been crying out for a trip so I wasn’t surprised she stayed 11 furlongs the last day, even though she’s out of Airwave.
“I’ve been happy with her since and we’ll know an awful lot more about her after tomorrow.”
Jim Bolger has won four of the last 10 renewals and runs Cleofila, a daughter of Teofilo who proved no match for Kissed on her first start of the campaign.
One place ahead of her that day was Kevin Prendergast’s Aaraas and the pair meet again.
Dermot Weld runs Princess Highway, a very impressive winner of a Leopardstown maiden beating Betterbetterbetter, who ran well in the Cheshire Oaks last week.
John Oxx has an interesting contender too in Shebella, winner of her only start at Limerick.
However, possibly the most interesting runner is Aidan O’Brien’s Was.
She cost 1.2m guineas as a yearling and won her only start last year by two and a half lengths.
Her dam is a half-sister to New Approach and she still holds entries in the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Investec Oaks.
Oxx feels plenty of winners will come out of the race and is keen to see how Shebella gets on.
“She did well to win over seven furlongs but she’s bred to stay 10 furlongs,” said Oxx.
“We started her off over that trip because she’d shown us plenty of speed at home, so we’ll try her over further and see what happens.
“She’s a straightforward filly but it looks a very competitive race.
“Dermot’s filly looked nice and there’s a Galileo filly of Aidan’s that cost more then a million. Time will tell but I suspect it will turn out to be a good race.
“She didn’t run last year as she had a few little setbacks but she came back to us in the autumn and was with us all winter.”
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