MARGARSON THRILLED WITH LUCKY KRISTALE’S PROGRESS

TRAINER George Margarson has reported that Lucky Kristale is on schedule for the QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile racecourse on Sunday May 4th. Lucky Kristale was one of the two-year-old stars of the 2013 season, winning twice at Group 2 level – including in the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket’s July Festival. She missed her intended sign-off race for 2013 – the Connolly’s RED MILLS Cheveley Park Stakes – but Margarson today reported his charge to be in fine fettle with her Classic preparations underway. “She has been back in training a month and started cantering on Saturday morning,” Margarson said. “We will pick her work up in February and get her ready for the Guineas. She will go straight there and probably have a racecourse gallop beforehand. “Whether she gets the mile is the question – we feel she will. She is a very relaxed filly as we know and is being trained to get the mile. But if she has to go back to sprinting the July Cup would be her target. “She has done very well over the winter. I didn’t think she would do as well as she has. I expected her to fill out and get chunkier – she has done the opposite. “She has lengthened, grown nearly a hand and put on 35 kilos. She looks more like an animal that will get seven furlongs or a mile.” Margarson has first-hand experience of what a Guineas preparation entails, having trained Barathea Guest, who finished third to King’s Best in the 2000 Guineas in the year 2000. “At this point in time I couldn’t be any more pleased with Lucky Kristale,” he said. “She would be pleasing me as much as Barathea Guest did when I prepared him for a Guineas.” Newmarket Racecourses reports that advance ticket sales are good and on a par with a year ago. Advance tickets are now online at the discounted rate of £20.70 for the Grandstand & Paddock and £36 for Premier, with bigger discounts for bookings of 10 or more tickets and free entry for all accompanied children under the age of 18. To book, visit www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk or call 0844 579 3010.   For further information please contact: Michael Prosser, Head of Racing, Jockey Club East Region, 07802 844 578 or Tony Rushmer, Racing PR manager, Newmarket Racecourses, 07702 579 382