Touleen camp left to wonder what might have been

Connections of Touleen were left wondering what might have been after she endured a nightmare passage on her way to finishing second in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot on Friday.

The Owen Burrows-trained filly was only sixth in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket behind the reopposing True Love, who had since chased home stablemate Precise in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh.

With the score one apiece between the Ballydoyle pair, much of the pre-race focus was on their third clash of the season – but Touleen (12-1) raised her game to split them in second and may well have given Precise a real run for her money had she not encountered serious traffic problems in the straight.

“I would have been pleased if you’d told me beforehand we’d finish second, but she was a bit unlucky wasn’t she,” said Burrows.

“She’s split two Guineas winners there and was unlucky in doing it. It’s frustrating, but we’re very pleased.

“I’m not sure where we’ll go next, we’ll have a look and see how she comes out of it. We put her in the Falmouth the other day, I’m not sure Newmarket is her place even though it’s the July course, and this obviously suited her much better.”

Touleen’s rider Saffie Osborne was similarly left with mixed emotions.

“On paper it’s an amazing result to split the two Guineas winners, but it is frustrating in the manner that it happened,” she said.

“I switched out to follow Ryan (Moore, riding Precise) turning in and I felt as though I was going to have a beautiful trip through and True Love loomed up on my outside and pushed me back in. It was frustrating considering she was gaining at the line.

“I felt like I had a clean passage to follow Ryan and Wayne (Lordan, riding True Love) could see me going well and put me back in. Touleen is very brave, but she is not a very big filly and True Love is probably double the size of her so it wasn’t too hard for him to put me back in behind them.

“She’s run a huge race and hopefully she’ll have a very exciting season.”

Angus Gold, racing manager for owners Shadwell, added: “We thought she was a very good filly and I think she’s shown that today. She made up plenty of ground when she did get a run – it just would have been nice to see, if she had got one, what would have happened.

“She was fantastic beforehand, I thought she was the calmest of the lot in the paddock. She’s growing up mentally and now she’s showing she really does belong in that class, which I hadn’t seen before, personally.

“It was a great run and we’re not going to complain, but for me if she’d had a clear run she would have given the favourite something to think about.”

Moon Target belied her odds of 33-1 with a fine effort to finish fourth for Sir Mark Prescott, although her rider Luke Morris was given a three-day ban for careless riding after the stewards judged he had edged his mount left-handed when insufficiently clear, causing Osborne to have to check Touleen.

“I think we’re all very pleased with her. I think we’re all slightly disappointed we didn’t scramble into third, but that’s life – she ran very well,” said Prescott.

“I think she could possibly go two furlongs further – maybe the Nassau or something. We’ll see what they (owners Cheveley Park Stud) think – they know the programme book pretty well.”