Ann Duffield will be thrilled to have a runner in the historic Hilary Needler Trophy when Indigo Beat lines up at Beverley on Saturday.
The two-year-old daughter of Tamayuz is one of eight fillies declared for the £25,000 dash over five furlongs and has been handed stall seven in the hands of PJ McDonald.
Duffield is measured about the chances of Indigo Beat winning what is a hot renewal, but her representative nonetheless shaped encouragingly on her debut at Thirsk on May 14, when fourth behind Kocollada over five furlongs.
The Constable Burton handler feels the juvenile has physically developed in the last fortnight, but is just happy she is in contention for a race of this magnitude.
She said: “Indigo Beat ran well enough first time out and we think she’s improved a bit since, but obviously she’ll need to have improved an awful lot to be troubling one or two of these.
“I’m not saying she’s good enough to win it, and we’re probably tilting at windmills, but it’s nice to have a runner in a race like the Hilary Needler.”
Eight horses, six of whom possess winning form, have been declared for the Hilary Needler, with Grizzell (Richard Hannon) and Spin Doctor (Richard Fahey) bringing unbeaten records into the race.
Boater was only beaten a length in the Listed Marygate Fillies’ Stakes at York’s Dante meeting and has been declared by Mark Johnston, who last won the race with the mighty Attraction in 2003.
The David O’Meara-trained Coolfitch, who was seventh in the Marygate, Erica Bing (Jo Hughes), Clem Fandango (Keith Dalgleish) and Our Greta (Mick Appleby) complete the line-up.
Beverley’s well-attended ‘A Very British Raceday’ starts at 1.50pm – the first of seven races on a card which also features the Brian Yeardley Continental Two-Year-Old Trophy, won last season by French Derby runner-up First Selection.