Queens Gamble on course for Market Rasen Listed date
Oliver Sherwood’s highly-promising bumper mare Queens Gamble is headed for Market Rasen later in the month.
The five-year-old has been seen twice on track so far, making her debut in a Cheltenham mares’ contest in April and triumphing by an impressive 10 lengths.
In November she returned to the same track to contest a Listed heat and flew home under Jonathan Burke to win by eight lengths.
The chestnut was then intended to line up for another Listed event at Huntingdon last month, but a slightly unsatisfactory scope ruled her out of that engagement.
The Alan Swinbank mares’ bumper at Market Rasen will now be her next port of call provided conditions are not too testing, after which Queens Gamble will be aimed at the Cheltenham Festival.
“We gave her a bit of a break after we didn’t run at Huntingdon because her trachea wash wasn’t 100 per cent,” Sherwood said.
“She’s just coming back into action now, she doesn’t take a lot of work, luckily.
“The aim is to go, hopefully, to Market Rasen on January 20.
“That’s the plan, but if the ground was to come up very testing then we wouldn’t run and we’d go straight to Cheltenham.”
The Market Rasen bumper, a Listed race, has become a target for Willie Mullins as the leading Irish trainer has made a habit of sending a filly over to Lincolnshire in recent years.
🏇🤩 Wow – Queens Gamble absolutely demolishes her rivals at @CheltenhamRaces, powering away from the field to secure Listed honours!
✅ A lovely winner for our Members Extra readers, too!pic.twitter.com/hpHWh3Ksh7
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) November 12, 2022
“It is what it is, I’m more worried about my own horses, let alone other people’s!” said Sherwood of the prospect.
“If they come, they come, but I’ve been friends with Willie for a long time so I’d be delighted to see him there – not that he’d show up!
“It’s just exciting to have a nice mare like her, fingers crossed the ground doesn’t get too testing.”
