Royal Ascot flop Flotus pencilled in for Newmarket or Ascot

Flotus could bid to bounce back from Royal Ascot disappointment at either Newmarket or Ascot.

The Starspangledbanner filly made a big impression on her racecourse debut at Goodwood in May and was sent off clear favourite for the Albany Stakes as a result under Frankie Dettori.

However, Flotus trailed home 13th of 15 runners, with joint-trainer Ed Crisford putting the below-par performance down to the prevailing testing conditions on the penultimate afternoon of the Royal meeting.

“That ground was just too heavy for her,” he said.

“We’ll either go to Newmarket for the Duchess of Cambridge or wait for the Group Three at Ascot (Princess Margaret Stakes), depending on how she is.

“She seems fine, but Ascot was a bit of a disaster with the ground. I know she handled soft ground at Goodwood, but it was an early race and almost good to soft that day, whereas at Ascot it was proper heavy, brutal ground.

“Frankie looked after her, which is the main thing, so hopefully we’ve got a filly to go to war with later on in the season.”

Daneh looks another exciting juvenile filly for the Crisford team judged on her impressive debut at Kempton last week.

The daughter of Dubawi is out of Clive Brittain’s dual Group One-winning mare Rizeena and is likely to test the water in stakes company later in the summer.

Crisford added: “You never quite know what they’re going to do on the racetrack, but she did it well. She’s obviously very well bred and a nice filly.

“At the moment we haven’t made any firm plans. There are Listed races or she might go for another novice – we haven’t quite decided yet.

“She’s come out of it great and we’re talking to the owner about where we go from here.”