Poetic Charm & Dathanna head Sandringham trio

Last-time out winners Poetic Charm and Dathanna feature among a trio of three-year-old fillies representing Godolphin in the mile Sandringham Handicap on day four or Royal Ascot, Friday, 22 June. 

Poetic Charm (9st 1lb, Charlie Appleby/William Buick) makes her first appearance since staying on well for a length success in a Polytrack conditions race over seven furlongs at Kempton Park in September. 

The daughter of Dubawi, a half-sister to Teofilo, had two earlier turf starts over seven furlongs at Newmarket, winning a maiden on debut before coming home a close fifth in the G3 Sweet Solera Stakes. 

Dathanna (9st 6lb, Charlie Appleby/James Doyle), also by Dubawi, was twice victorious at Newmarket as a juvenile and is unbeaten in two starts this year, with her most recent success coming when making virtually all in a conditions race over a mile at Ascot on 2 May. 

Iffraaj filly Terzetto (8st 13lb, Michael Halford/Colm O’Donoghue), an easy winner of a seven-furlong Polytrack maiden at Dundalk, Ireland, on 6 May, heads into the Sandringham Handicap on the back of a staying-on third in a mile handicap at the Curragh on 26 May. 

Charlie Appleby commented: “Poetic Charm has done well from two to three and I have been very pleased with her preparation. She should be fit enough coming back off a break and we feel that she is going to be competitive. 

“Dathanna is a very consistent filly, who probably put up a career-best performance on her latest start at Ascot. She is encountering quicker ground that she has raced on before, but I don’t think it will be a concern to her and she should be there or thereabouts.”

Michael Halford said: “Terzetto ran a good race in a competitive handicap at the Curragh on her first start on turf last time out and has come nicely since that effort. 

“William Buick rode her on that occasion and thought that she would come on the run. He felt that she showed a bit of greenness when she quickened, and he suggested the Sandringham would be a good race for her. 

“We had the race in our mind already, so it was nice that we were both thinking along the same lines.”

The Charlie Appleby-trained pair of Walton Street (9st 9lb, William Buick) and Eynhallow (James McDonald, 9st 2lb) re-oppose in the 12-furlong Duke of Edinburgh Handicap, having finished first and second respectively over the same trip in a turf handicap at Meydan, UAE, in February. 

Charlie Appleby added: “Walton Street progressed throughout the winter in Dubai and this has been has been the target since his last run at Meydan. We hope that he is still progressing and he should be very competitive. 

“Eynhallow can get a bit keen in his races, but hopefully they go a good gallop, which would suit. If he can reproduce his latest run behind Walton Street, he should go pretty close.”