Wootton Bassett’s Whirl gets her Group 1 in Pretty Polly
Whirl (3 f ex Salsa by Galileo) made up for her desperately close runner-up finish in the Epsom Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) when she put in a brave display to win the Pretty Polly Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f), becoming the 15th individual Group 1 winner for Coolmore’s star shuttler Wootton Bassett (Ifrraaj) in the process, capping off a brilliant day for the stallion at the Curragh.
Ridden by Ryan Moore on this occasion, having been denied by the Moore-ridden Minnie Hauk (Frankel) at Epsom earlier in the month, the Aidan O’Brien-trained filly found plenty for pressure to fend off the strong-travelling favourite Kalpana (Study Of Man) by a length and a quarter at the finish. There was a further length and three-quarters back to Survie (Churchill) in third.
Celebrating his sixth win in the race, trainer Aidan O’Brien said: “She’s very special and Ryan gave her a great ride. For a filly coming back from a mile and a half and when you’re trying to outstay a rival, it’s very difficult. You’re walking a tightrope but he got it spot on.
“She’s the ultimate racing machine and it was an unbelievable race to watch. Colin and Ryan weren’t giving each other an inch the whole way. That’s what you want to come racing to watch. It makes it very special and I think it’s a race we will remember for a long time. They went at it for the whole way.
“We saw in the Oaks that she wasn’t surrendering and we saw it again today. It was some ding-dong the whole way. It was a great spectacle.”
Asked what might be next for the winner, O’Brien added: “Minnie Hauk will get first look at the Irish Oaks because that’s what she’s been trained for but we’ll see how this filly is and the lads will decide what they want to do.
“She could go for the Nassau or York for the Yorkshire Oaks. She has so many options.”
In winning the Group 1, Whirl also became the first female Group 1 since Zellie’s win in the Prix Marcel Boussac (Gr 1, 1600m) in October 2021.
Bred and raced by Coolmore, Whirl is the first foal out of the winning Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Salsa, herself a sister to 2016 Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) winner The United States and fellow Group 1 scorers Hydrangea and Hermosa.
Whirl becomes the ninth stakes winner bred on the Wootton Bassett / Galileo cross and second Group 1 winner for the nick, with Al Riffa the other.
Wootton Bassett is to stand for a shuttle-record fee of $385,000 (inc GST) at Coolmore Australia this season.
Whirl’s victory was a 150th at Group/Grade 1 level as a partnership for O’Brien and Moore, having first struck at the top-level together with Beethoven (Oratorio) in the 2009 Dewhurst Stakes (Gr 1, 7f).