Newbury debut leaves My Ophelia’s connections purring

My Ophelia could have connections dreaming of next year’s Classics over the winter after proving a nice end-of-season bonus on debut at Newbury.

Trained by William Haggas and owned by Brighton & Hove Albion supremo Tony Bloom in conjunction with Ian McAleavy, she made a perfect first racecourse appearance under Tom Marquand in what appeared a deep maiden.

It was easy to see why the daughter of Wootton Bassett – who is closely related to the Haggas’ former Group-level operators My Prospero and My Oberon – cost 1.7million guineas at last year’s Tattersalls Book 1 Sale such was the impressive nature of her two-length success.

“She’s from a very good family and is a good-looking filly which was why she was so expensive,” said Bloom’s racing manager Sean Graham.

“William has taken his time with her and early on in the season he said to us this filly will either be a back-end two-year-old or might not even run at all, and it was a run just to get her on the grass and to the racecourse and give her a bit of experience.

“She coped well and William was of the opinion she had ability and should run well but none of his fillies are ever given a smack first time on the track and we knew it would be a learning experience more than anything else and for her to win the way she did was a bonus.”

My Ophelia could add to the Classic hand the owners already possess with Karl Burke’s Venetian Sun, who is a general 12-1 shot for next year’s 1000 Guineas.

My Ophelia earned quotes of 25-1 for the same event in early May and also 20-1 for the Oaks after her taking introduction.

Despite admitting Classic dreams could sneak into the thought process, connections are content to “keep feet on the ground” and wait for the spring to reveal more about the potential of their exciting prospect.

“You’ve got to keep your feet on the ground and she’s won a maiden where you don’t know if the form is good, bad or indifferent,” continued Graham.

“We can look forward to next year with her now and where we start we won’t know until next spring. She will tell us more when she comes to hand next season and hopefully she turns out to be a stakes filly.

“Of course we’re dreaming of Classics with her, but at the same time we don’t want to get too carried away.

“At the end of the day she’s only won a maiden and how many of those get quoted for the big races then don’t appear in them. She’ll have to show a good bit more to really justify talk of Classics, but it was a really pleasing performance and we’re over the moon with her.”