Options aplenty for impressive Albany heroine Venetian Sun

Connections of Venetian Sun will be dreaming big after she rose admirably to the challenge at Royal Ascot to land the Albany Stakes.

The filly has clearly always been held in high regard by trainer Karl Burke, and demonstrated exactly why when overcoming a difficult draw to take Group Three honours by a length and a half last week.

While there is no great hurry to formulate an immediate plan for the two-year-old daughter of Starman, a handful of races have been identified as possible next targets for the Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy-owned youngster.

Bloom’s racing manager Sean Graham said: “Karl said she came out of the race in great order.

“You’ve Newmarket for the Duchess of Cambridge, which is six furlongs at the July meeting, and you’ve got the Lowther over six furlongs at York. Later in the season you’ve also got the Moyglare over seven furlongs at the Curragh.

“We said to Karl that we’d let the hare sit after Royal Ascot and not be in any mad rush to make any definite decisions, but those races are certainly on our radar.

“If you win the Albany from a dreadful draw you probably have a much better filly still, she had no cover and was on the wide outside – everything went wrong and yet she still won.”

The Guineas was mentioned in the immediate aftermath of the Ascot contest, with all connections singing from the same hymn sheet with regards to Venetian Sun’s potential, while remaining mindful that her three-year-old season is a distant prospect still.

Graham added: “I think most trainers would automatically be thinking about the Guineas with an Albany winner, but her owners are very aware that an awful lot can happen between now and then so we won’t get too ahead of ourselves.”