UFO Info Week-End

Frankie Dettori was yesterday booked by Aidan O’Brien for Strawberry Roan one of his

Frankie Dettori was yesterday booked by Aidan O’Brien for Strawberry Roan, one of his three Irish Derby entries, but the jockey will need to recover from a fall at Salisbury yesterday if he is to take part in proceedings at the Curragh. Dettori missed three rides at Epsom last night after he failed to pass a medical examination which followed a fall at Salisbury in the afternoon. He is expected to be out of action until tomorrow at least, while he recovers from the stiffness that set in after he was unshipped by Badge Of Fame on exiting the parade ring for the Bibury Cup.
Dettori’s booking for Strawberry Roan understandably attracted support for the filly in the betting on the Classic.Michael Tabor’s daughter of Sadler’s Wells, deputising for the owner’s sidelined Entrepreneur, is 4-1 second favourite for the race with William Hill, whose betting is headed by the even-money shot Silver Patriarch. She later ran fourth in a Manchester handicap under 9st 7lb, finished her racecourse career by winning the Champion Stakes, and the folowing year was safely delivered of a healthy filly foal.English Spring carried a Teenoso colt to victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 1986 and Granny’s Bank was in foal to Forzando when she ran Vague Shot to half a length in the Hunt Cup the following year. And at Leopardstown a few years ago Cipriani, pregnant to Glow, and Golden Temple, carrying to Law Society, provided a 1-2 in the Ballycorus Stakes.. The most recent at the top level was Indian Queen, who was carrying to Night Shift when she won the Ascot Gold Cup six years ago.

She was the second in-foal mare to win the stayers’ crown, the great La Fleche having done so in 1894, a day before running second in the Hardwicke Stakes. A few years ago, Liz McColgan, the leading distance runner, stayed in training – albeit increasingly gently – up to the seventh month of her pregnancy, and there is no reason why a fit, healthy mare or filly should not race for the early part of her 11-month gestation.Pregnant mares have a long and honourable history of success. The bloom of the pregnant mother is not a myth.”There is no objection on veterinary grounds to an in-foal mare racing in her early days; pregnancy is, after all, a perfectly natural condition and even at 120 days the foetus will be half the size of a small Jack Russell. The days when the mother-to-be retired to the chaise-longue for the duration have long since gone and exercise is now regarded in a positive light. There have been rumours in the past about women athletes from the eastern bloc being made pregnant specifically to help performance in a big event.Deidre Carson, of the Rossdale veterinary practice in Newmarket, said: “Being pregnant will not make a slow animal into a flying machine, nor will it have an effect on every individual But some are definitely helped. Apart from the calming effect pregnancy can have on a filly or mare who would otherwise be contantly in season, there are proven physiological benefits.

You can generally tell just by looking if a mare is pregnant – her coat is shining and she will have an air of well-being. She’s got a real deep glow to her coat and has definitely improved physically.”The answer is in the hormones. Pregnancy causes changes in the female system, particularly in progesterone levels, a sort of natural doping, in fact. My Branch, however, has until August before she can start thinking seriously about motherhood at Wafic Said’s stud, and those closest to her are sure she will regain winning form before then.Kevin Moony, assistant to her trainer Barry Hills, said: “She’s thriving on it.