DAVID O’MEARA’s star mare Amazing Maria will tackle the boys at Royal Ascot.
A shock winner at the meeting last year in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes she went on to win the Falmouth stakes and the Prix Rothschild over in France.
She will now return to Royal Ascot and O’Meara is prepared to let her take on the boys in the Queen Anne Stakes.
O’Meara was happy with her comeback third in the Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket last month and has chosen the Queen Anne rather than let her defend her title in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes.
O’Meara said: “She was very good at Ascot last year in the Duke of Cambridge and I think she’ll run in the Queen Anne this year.
“The ground was a bit dead (at Newmarket) – we actually deliberated whether to run her or not – and a mile and one (furlong) was plenty far enough on her seasonal debut.
“We were keen to get a run in before the Lockinge, then the Lockinge went soft and we swerved it.
“We stuck to her own sex last year with her, so going against the boys is a bit of an unknown.
“But she was very good in Ascot, in the Falmouth and in France last year, so rather than take on the fillies with the penalty, we’ll have a crack at the Queen Anne.”
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