G1 Fillies’ Mile goes to unbeaten Musical Times
By Sean Cronin
Godolphin's hitherto unbeaten 2-year-old filly Musical Times (Lope De Vega) could not have been more impressive than when annexing last month's G2 May Hill at Doncaster, but was forced to pull out all the stops to retain her unblemished record in a corking renewal of Friday's G1 bet365 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket.
Appleby's prior winner of the contest, Desert Flower, followed up her 2024 win here with G1 1,000 Guineas glory last year and the trainer is eyeing the Classic route once again. “She's an exciting filly to put away for the winter,” he said.
“There's no doubt she needed her class to get her home today and, from what we saw, I think she is entitled to be one of the favourites for the Guineas. She's done it over the mile and sees it out well. We'll probably just come here for a racecourse gallop and then on to the (1,000) Guineas, hopefully. I would say she is a miler through and through at the minute and she has a lot of natural pace and quickens. She could maybe get further and you don't always need to be a proper mile-and-a-half horse at Epsom. Sometimes, if you are miler who can get a mile-and-a-quarter, you might be able to get the job done.”
Reflecting on the performance, Appleby added, “I'm delighted and, after two furlongs, we just had to hold our breath a little bit and see what was happening, but William (Buick) was on the class filly in the race and he knew it himself. He was just trying to find those gaps and, when he did, she quickened up smartly. The rest were riding to beat one filly and, credit to her and William, they toughed it out. When she got the run upsides the eventual second she was always going to attack the hill well and the one thing we've seen is she always gallops out strongly. She had to work a bit hard there, but she will have learned plenty and what I liked about her today was she went to post well and is still learning.
“The fillies division is strong this year and there's some lovely fillies around, but they look to be all sprinting fillies while this girl sees out the mile well. She was seeing the dip for the first time and probably wanted easier ground. It is nice if they can see the dip, but there was no chance of her seeing it when she was rolling down and you could see that rounded action looking a bit enhanced here with the ground being tighter than Doncaster. I think it's a performance you can mark up a little bit.”
Ante-post second favourite for next year's Guineas back over course and distance, Musical Times went postward as the 4-9 favourite for this storied launchpad and stalked the leaders in fourth for the most part.
She slipped to sixth when caught in heavy traffic inside the final quarter-mile and found plenty once finding a clear passage from the furlong pole to overcome a stern challenge posed by the Aidan O'Brien-trained Dundalk maiden winner Haven (Wootton Bassett) by a one-length margin.
TDN Rising Star Forbidden Fire (No Nay Never) fared best remainder, 3.5 lengths adrift, and unlocked late gears to prevail in a three-way photograph for third.
Pedigree: Musical Times, full-sister to a yearling filly, is the second of three foals and lone scorer produced by Listed Cheshire Oaks victrix and G2 May Hill and G3 Sweet Solera runner-up Dubai Fountain (Teofilo).
Her dam is a half-sister to the dual Group 2-winning G1 Queen Anne and G1 Lockinge runner-up Real World (Dark Angel) and to the dam of G3 Atalanta Stakes victrix Lady Of Spain (Phoenix Of Spain) and Listed National Stakes second First Legion (Mehmas).
Havana Grey filly wins G3 Oh So Sharp Stakes
By Tom Frary
Guy O'Callaghan's Grangemore Stud have a live Classic contender on their hands as 2-year-old filly Lola De Valence (Havana Grey) causes an upset in Newmarket's G3 Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes on Friday.
Stepping up to this seven furlongs for the first time, the homebred who had been fourth last time in Fairyhouse's Blenheim Stakes needed all of the trip to get up under Saffie Osborne and deny Cheveley Park's Sweltering (Palace Pier) and Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's Topaz (Persian Force) by a neck and a head.
“I was hoping that she would finish in the first four, as we do think a lot of this filly,” trainer Rod Millman said. “She won her maiden well, then we ran her in the Dick Poole but the ground was soft and she got stuck in it. She went to Fairyhouse, she missed the break and she had to come the whole way around the field and ended up being the fastest finisher in the race, so you could mark that run up.”
“We are only a little yard, but if we get the right horse we can do it,” he added. “I'd say that would probably be her done for the season. She would get a penalty in the Bosra Sham back here, but we will probably come back for the 1,000 Guineas as she has just won a Group 3. We will see what Guy wants to do, but I imagine he will want to come back here.”
Pedigree: Lola De Valence's dam Sacred Dance (Sea The Stars) is a half-sister to Awesometank (Intense Focus), who was successful in two Listed contests and was runner-up in the Beverly D. Stakes and three Group 3 prizes. A granddaughter of another dual Listed winner in Slip Dance (Celtic Swing), she is connected to Galileo's Irish St Leger Flag Of Honour and Danehill Dancer's classy trio of Group performers Air Chief Marshal, Misu Bond and Foxtrot Romeo.
Night Of Thunder quinellas G3 Pride Stakes
By Tom Frary
Two beautifully-bred exciting Night Of Thunder fillies Song Of The Clouds and Silver Lake lined up for a deep renewal of the G3 Newmarket Pony Academy Pride Stakes on Friday and provided a dramatic finale for their trainer William Haggas as they came home alone separated by the width of the track.
Barring a dead-heat, the outcome with the Oppenheimer homebred Song Of The Clouds edging Wathnan's highly progressive summer festival-goer Silver Lake in a photo with both utterly dominant over their groups and out of sight of each other was the ideal scenario for Somerville Lodge.
Never one to exaggerate when it comes to his runners, Haggas was notably glowing in his praise for the winner. “She's pretty good, I think,” he said. “Her work's always been pretty impressive and we've always liked her. The aim is to try and win a Group 1 for sure.”
Runner-up on debut to Ombudsman's sister Synchronicity on debut at Newbury in April, Song Of The Clouds had opened her account at Redcar the following month before sustaining a fracture and had only one other outing behind her entering this test having beaten the subsequent winner Wootz at Windsor last month.
Pedigree: Song Of The Clouds is the penultimate foal out of the sadly-deceased Listed-winning dam Token Of Love (Cape Cross), a particularly important broodmare for Hascombe and Valiant being by the sire of their flagship performer Golden Horn. Before her demise, she produced the smart Sovereign Stakes and Sir Henry Cecil Stakes winner Mighty Ulysses (Ulysses) who also captured the Moonga Stakes and Brisbane Mile in the other hemisphere. Her only other daughter is the useful handicapper and Listed fourth Lou Lou's Gift (Lope De Vega), so for Song Of The Clouds to make this breakthrough is significant.
Token Of Love's dam Nyarhini (Fantastic Light), who was twice Listed-placed in the old Masaka and Lupe, was a half-sister to the Coronation Stakes heroine Rebecca Sharp (Machiavellian) who is the third dam of the winner's high-class stablemate Earth Shot (Time Test) who took this year's Ribblesdale Stakes. Another of her half-siblings, the Cheshire Oaks winner Hidden Hope (Daylami), produced another Ribblesdale winner in Frankly Darling (Frankel) who was third in the Oaks.
The all-important third dam Nuryana (Nureyev) was also responsible for the unraced Fleche D'Or (Dubai Destination), dam of the aforementioned Golden Horn who carried all before him in the Derby, the Arc, the Eclipse and the Irish Champion.
