Hollie Doyle was not entirely sure what her career total of Group One wins had just increased to after her easy success on Nashwa, a 4-1 chance, in the Falmouth Stakes here on Friday. It can only be a sign of how well her career is progressing that she has now started to lose count.
The answer – currently – is seven, with Nashwa back to her very best form in Friday’s race, having been the beaten favourite in her first two starts of the season. John Gosden’s filly shrugged off the drop back to a mile for the first time since April 2022, surging into the lead over a furlong out before completing a five-length defeat of Remarquee that should have her spot on for the Group One Nassau Stakes at Goodwood next month.
“She was always going to the Nassau but I didn’t like the gap from when she ran at Newcastle [in June],” Gosden said. “Seven weeks, she gets big and fresh and she gets to the Nassau and over-races like she did at Newcastle.
“This race was close to home and I thought of it last weekend, so I phoned up Teddy [Grimthorpe, racing manager to Nashwa’s owner, Imad Al-Sagar] and he wondered what I was smoking, I think. But I knew it was the right thing for her to come here and she’s proven it. Finally she’s back to her zenith.”
Nashwa is the 3-1 second-favourite (from 8-1) with Paddy Power for the Nassau Stakes, behind the 7-4 favourite, Blue Rose Cen, this year’s Prix de Diane [French Oaks] winner.
Earlier on the card, Dominic Ffrench Davis recorded the first Group-race win of his career – and consigned Charlie Appleby’s Godolphin operation to a second defeat at long odds-on in two days. Persian Dreamer, at 5-1, stayed on well to beat Appleby’s Star Of Mystery (1-6) in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes.
Ffrench Davies has been training since 1994 but has averaged around three winners a year until the current campaign, with the support of Kia Joorachian’s Amo Racing operation already starting to transform his fortunes. Persian Dreamer was the trainer’s 13th winner in 2023, already five ahead of his previous record of eight in 2010.
Persian Dreamer’s win was the second leg of a 1,910-1 four-timer for Kevin Stott, her jockey. He opened up with three straight wins, starting on Killybegs Warrior (20-1) and ending aboard Live Your Dream (5-2). Stott later added a fourth win aboard Good Earth (100-30) in the concluding sprint handicap.
Saturday’s TV racing preview
Racing’s annual “Super Saturday” could become a thing of the past under planned “premierisation”, with one of this afternoon’s four meetings potentially switching to next weekend. For now, punters face the familiar quickfire mix of ultra-competitive handicaps and Group races, with the Group One July Cup at the end of the televised proceedings.
Shaquille, who produced a semi-miraculous performance to win the Commonwealth Cup after a slow start at Ascot last time, is the likely favourite for the day’s feature event, but his quirky nature is a concern and he also faces a very tricky opponent in Azure Blue (4.35).
Michael Dods’s filly is making her Group One debut but looked more than ready for the step up when successful at York’s Dante meeting in May. She travelled and quickened like a top-class sprinter on the Knavesmire and looks overpriced at around 7-2 to give Dods a fourth Group One sprint victory since 2015.
Ascot 1.45 Harry Davies’s 3lb claim, along with a high draw, tips the balance towards King’s Lynn, beaten less than three lengths in the Wokingham last time out.
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York 2.00 Blue For You saves his best form for this track and trip and has been dropped 2lb since finishing down the field in the Hunt Cup.
Ascot 2.20 With just two runs since October 2021, Aldaary has clearly been tricky to train but he looked a Group-class performer of the future when landing the Balmoral Handicap off 109 two seasons ago.
York 2.35 Regional is improving by the race and could well defy a penalty for his recent Listed success at Haydock.
Newmarket 2.50 Royal Dubai was two lengths in front of Tafreej in a strongly run race at Chester last month, yet is 4lb better off here following Tafreej’s success at Yarmouth. The 11-2 on offer about Marco Botti’s lightly raced colt is definitely worth taking.
York 3.10 A 5lb penalty for an easy success on the all-weather last month may not prevent the lightly raced Sea The Caspar from following up from a useful low draw in stall four.
Newmarket 3.25 City Of Troy is second-favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas after a hugely promising debut at the Curragh, but the time of Great Truth’s debut win by nearly six lengths suggests he ran to a very similar level.
York 3.45 Hamish is highly effective at this level and will be odds-on to take his record in Group Threes to five-from-six.
Newmarket 4.00 Spangled Mac still has scope for progress off his current mark, ran well twice in big fields at Ascot last month and could be the pick at around 16-1.
