O Brien banking on Santa Barbara s ability and intelligence in 1000 Guineas
By Andy Stephens@StevoGG
Fri 30 Apr 2021
Aidan O Brien is banking on
The daughter of Camelot is the general 6-4 favourite for the fillies Classic, despite having only won a backened maiden in the mud at the Curragh last season. She had been quoted at 33-1 after that success.
Santa Barbara s reputation has soared in recent weeks, with O Brien issuing several glowing bulletins. She will be ridden by Ryan Moore at Headquarters with Frankie Dettori snapped up to ride the trainer s second representative in
Mother Earth.
One significant obstacle removed from their path on Friday was Fillies Mile winner
Deep down, I suspect everyone knows they should be tipping and backing the favourite
Santa Barbara, such is the outrageously positive chat coming out of Ballydoyle in what could well be a substandard Classic.
It is as if Aidan O Brien has released the handbrake on the bland caution he has hitherto employed when discussing his horses and it has
enthralled and lured in everyone, including the market.
But how can any pundit or punter take themselves seriously if they do decide with the Curragh maiden winner (even at her bigger exchange price)
solely on the basis of the trainer chat, and who knows how this super-worker will react if having to get down and dirty and off the bridle here?
OâBrien-Santa Barbara eye Qipco 1,000 Guineas glory
By Andrew Atkinson
Ballydoyle trainer Aidan O’Brien says three-year-old Santa Barbara, 7-4 favourite in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 2, slashed from 10-1, is ‘coming along nicely’.
O’Brien, eyeing a fifth 1,000 Guineas victory in the last six seasons, said: “Santa Barbara is doing everything very nice.
“We decided she’ll head straight to the Guineas. We’ve always thought the world of her.
“She shows a lot of speed. Being by Camelot, we’d have thought that a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half would be possible for her, but she’s showing a lot of pace and that’s why we’re looking at the Guineas. She’s going to learn a lot from racing.”
What It Was Like to Film the Shark Sequences for Jaws
Charles Thorp, provided by
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Valerie Taylor is one of the first to capture great white sharks on film and dive with them without a cage. Along with her husband Ron, she was involved with the world’s first documentaries on great whites, and was called upon by Steven Spielberg to capture the shark footage seen in the 1975 blockbuster
Jaws.
These days, Taylor is trying to secure protections for great whites and the rest of the marine world through her work as an activist and conservationist, work that has earned her the Order of Australia. She is the subject of the new documentary