Minding enters Fillies' Mile as favorite

Minding, who will be favored in Friday’s $760,000 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket Racecourse in England, has kept pretty good company in recent starts.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Minding was second to stablemate Ballydoyle in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes at The Curragh on Aug. 22 and beat that rival in a minor upset in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh on Sept. 13.

Ballydoyle won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp in Paris last Sunday.

Minding, by Galileo, has won 2 of 4 starts for O’Brien and owners Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor. Minding is part of a field of 10 2-year-old fillies in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, a race that serves as an early preview for the English 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at Newmarket in May.

Ryan Moore will ride Minding for the first time. O’Brien has two starters, including Coolmore, the winner of the Group 3 Park Stakes at The Curragh on Sept. 27.

Trainer John Gosden, who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp last Sunday with Golden Horn, has a rapidly improving runner in the unbeaten Nathra, by Iffraaj. Nathra won a maiden race at Salisbury in England on Sept. 3 and an allowance race at Newbury on Sept. 18.

There is a Newmarket stakes winner in the field in Promising Run, who is trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin Racing. Promising Run, a Kentucky-bred by Hard Spun, won the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket on Sept. 25.