David O’Meara admits that pitting Amazing Maria against “the boys” in Royal Ascot‘s Queen Anne Stakes is a step into the unknown.
The Mare proved her credentials when winning the Group Two Duke of Cambridge Stakes at last year’s showpiece meeting and followed it up with a couple of Group One triumphs.
Amazing Maria claimed the the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and the Prix Rothschild at Deauville to firmly establish the five-year-old as a contender for Ascot glory in 2016.
The daughter of Mastercraftsman was a decent third on her seasonal reappearances at Newmarket last month and the Helmsley handler now wants her to take on the opposite sex at the Berkshire venue.
“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,” O’Meara told At The Races.
“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.”
