Emily Upjohn booked for first Irish trip after shining in racecourse gallop

Significant improvement in Emily Upjohn's work at home is bolstering the confidence of her connections as she prepares for her first visit to Ireland for Saturday's Group 1 Cairn Pretty Polly Stakes.

The dual top-level winner was sent off the 7-4 favourite for the Coronation Cup at Epsom last month, but she could only finish ten and a half lengths behind the front-running winner Luxembourg in fourth. The mare was an electric winner of that race when defeating Westover the previous year. 

Since running at Epsom the five-year-old has been for a gallop on Newmarket's July course, which is said to have been responsible for an upturn in her form at home.

Emily Upjohn had previously run respectably when fifth to Rebel's Romance on her first start of the year in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan and her joint-trainer John Gosden believes the trip has made her more challenging to train.

Emily Upjohn: a dominant winner of last year's Coronation Cup at EpsomCredit: Warren Little

He said: “Emily Upjohn worked nicely on the July course in the week and that seems to have brought her forward. We trained her in the winter to race in Dubai which is not a natural time to be training a filly.

"We then let her down through April and she put on a huge amount of weight and became rather bored and lazy in her work. Therefore she very much needed the race in the Coronation Cup at Epsom and she showed a lot of her old sparkle in her workout on the July course.”

Emily Upjohn is generally the 11-4 second favourite to make her first Irish start a winning one after she was pulled out of the Irish Oaks as a three-year-old due to travel issues. She was only denied by a short-head in the Epsom version by Tuesday after stumbling at the start and forfeiting valuable ground.

The Ralph Beckett-trained Bluestocking heads the market after a flawless return to action in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York last month and, unlike Emily Upjohn, she is already proven in similar conditions having finished a half-length second to Savethelastdance in last year's Irish Oaks. She has yet to strike at the highest level, however.

Bluestocking: will bid for a breakthrough Group 1 victory next weekendCredit: Edward Whitaker

The Pretty Polly will be Emily Upjohn's first run over ten furlongs since she finished second to Paddington in the Coral-Eclipse last July, and her trainer is confident the drop in trip will not present any problems. 

It will also be the first time she has raced exclusively against her own sex since she ran out a three-length winner of the Fillies & Mares Stakes on British Champions Day in 2022.

Gosden said: “The race seems like a good fit for her programme and the drop back to ten furlongs should be fine for her.”

Emily Upjohn's other possible rivals include Ylang Ylang, who was sent off the 11-8 favourite for the Oaks after her eyecatching fifth in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket, but she could only finish sixth to Ezeliya at Epsom.

Cairn Pretty Polly Stakes (Curragh, Saturday)

Paddy Power: 11-8 Bluestocking, 11-4 Emily Upjohn, 7-2 Ylang Ylang, 5 Opera Singer, 15-2 Tasmania, 12 Caught U Looking, 14 bar

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