‘She’s the best filly’ Precise backs up Irish Guineas win with battling Coronation success
It may have been a little tougher than some had expected, but Aidan O’Brien’s star three-year-old filly Precise (Starspangledbanner) registered a second Group 1 for the season, and fourth overall, when toughing out victory in Friday’s Coronation Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at Royal Ascot.
A winner of four of her five outings as a juvenile, including in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) and Fillies’ Mile (Gr 1, 1m), the beautifully bred daughter of Starspangledbanner (Choisir) has improved her form in her Classic season.
Having been sent off favourite for the English 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) on May 3, Precise could only manage seventh of the 19 runners that day following a slightly rushed preparation.
However, back on an even keel, the filly produced a dominant two and a half lengths victory in the Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) three weeks later, turning around the form with True Love (No Nay Never) in decisive fashion.
Sent off as the odds-on favourite to confirm that form with her re-opposing stablemate, Precise was a tad slow out of the stalls and, having been three-wide rounding the home bend, was made to work inside the final furlong before eventually extending her advantage to a worthy length and a half.
The Owen Burrows-trained Touleen (Lope De Vega) finished well for second, while True Love was back in third, this time a length and three-quarters behind the winner.
Straight after the race, O’Brien admitted he was keen to hear his rider’s thoughts on the run through.
“It will be interesting to hear what Ryan says, she was a little bit slow away, I thought he did great on her, he kept out, kept her out of trouble. Delighted with her,” O’Brien said.
“Delighted for everybody. I thought Ryan was very good on her. When she gets there, she looks a little bit. Delighted, delighted for the lads. And True Love was third as well, lovely run.
“She can do a lot of stuff, she can stay at a mile, she can step up, it will be interesting to see what Ryan says.
“I’m grateful and thankful to everybody for getting her here. She gets a little bit lazy, but when you do ask her, she really opens up – but that’s her.
“I think Ryan will probably say he was probably there a little bit earlier than he wanted, because he had to move early because he was very wide and he didn’t have any choice. I think she did great.”
On True Love, O’Brien added: “True Love ran a storming race, and she got trapped wide and it probably didn’t go well for her, but she ran a great race.”
Moore was keen to make sure he got clear running on the winner, moving her forward constantly through the contest.
“She began a bit awkwardly, went forward, I was a bit further back but I rode her to get there in front, beautiful rhythm, wasn’t really caring what position I was in, just kept her going forward, she’s covered ground on the turn but I knew she was going to stay well,” Moore said.
“She’s the best filly, there was no need to complicate it, and she’s done what she had to do.
“I would say ten [furlongs] is within her compass but she’s good at a mile, plenty of good fillies in the yard so I suppose we’ll get home, see what the others are doing and make a plan.
“It wasn’t her fault she got beat first time up [in the Guineas]. She’s a good filly, very good filly, high-class filly, beautifully trained.”
Meanwhile, Saffie Osbourne, who rode the fast-finishing second Touleen, was left frustrated about being boxed in for much of the home straight.
“On paper an amazing result to split the two Guineas winners but frustrating in the manner that it happened,” Osbourne said.
“I switched out to follow Ryan turning in and I felt as though I was going to have a beautiful trip through and True Love loomed up on my outside and pushed me back in.
“It was frustrating considering the margin she was gaining at the line was ever diminishing [sic]. Again, a huge run, just frustrating in the manner that it happened.
“I felt like I had a clean passage to follow Ryan and Wayne [Lordan, True Love] could see me going well and put me back in.
“Touleen is very brave but she is not a very big filly and True Love is probably double the size of her so it wasn’t too hard for him to put me back in behind them. She’s run a huge race and hopefully she’ll have a very exciting season.”
Following Friday’s Coronation success, Precise was shortened into 7-4 from 2-1 by Paddy Power, as favourite, for next month’s Falmouth Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at Newmarket.
‘That’s more relief than enjoyment’ – Venetian’s Sun shines in Commonwealth Cup
Classy sprinter Venetian Sun (Starman) provided North Yorkshire-based trainer Karl Burke with his second career success in the Commonwealth Cup (Gr 1, 6f) when she narrowly landed the Group 1 sprint for three-year-olds at Royal Ascot on Friday.
Having been unbeaten in four starts over six furlongs during her juvenile campaign, including for a narrow win in the Prix Morny (Gr 1, 1200m), the daughter of Starman (Dutch Art) was upped to seven furlongs for her final two-year-old outing and ran third behind Precise (Starspangledbanner) – who landed the Coronation Cup (Gr 1, 1m) on Friday’s card two races later – in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 7f).
Returning to the track for last month’s English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m), Venetian Sun showed plenty of speed in the mile contest before finding the trip a step too far.
Dropped back to six furlongs for Haydock’s Sandy Lane Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) three weeks later, the filly recorded a resounding three-lengths success, teeing her up perfectly for Friday’s return to Group 1 company.
A winner of the Albany Stakes (Gr 3, 6f) at last year’s royal meeting, Venetian Sun made it a Royal Ascot double in dramatic fashion, travelling well into contention under rider Clifford Lee before being asked to work hard inside the closing stages to repel the persistent challenge of 50-1 chance Spicy Marg (Starspangledbanner), eventually scoring by a head.
There was a further half-length back to the staying on Division (Kingman) in third place.
“It’s great. This filly has already got me my first Group 1 in France last year and to pull it off again this year is just fantastic,” Lee said.
“It’s a pleasure to ride her and this is what it’s all about, these big days. We obviously tried to stretch her for the Guineas over the mile but she’s got loads of boot.
“I just told myself I’d try and kid her into the race and I think it was probably at the furlong pole when I asked the question, she’s just fantastic.
“I obviously wanted to be a jockey and ride as many winners as I could at a young age, as a kid. It’s fantastic when days like this happen.
“Once I hit the front she was just doing enough, but when the second horse came to me, she wouldn’t let the second horse get past me. I don’t really put pressure on myself; I’m here to do a job and get the winners, if we have a bit of luck and it goes right on the day, then happy days.
“It’s gone brilliant today but we knew she’s a really good filly – she obviously won the Prix Morny as a two-year-old. We obviously tried to stretch her to the mile, but dropped back to six, she’s been unbeaten now. She’s definitely a sprinter. A Group 1 at Ascot is great – everyone wants that Group 1.”
Burke may have been feeling the pressure a little more than the winning jockey, admitting he felt a lot of relief when the number 21 was called the winner in a photo-finish.
“That’s more relief than enjoyment,” Burke said. “She is what she is, she is such a laid-back filly and it was probably unusual the way she did it at Haydock last time and everybody was talking about how good it was visually, which it was, but I think the ground had a lot to do with that.
“I’ve said it before a few times, Clifford Lee when he rode her last year, even when he was winning Group races on her, kept saying, ‘She’s feeling the ground’. At Haydock was probably the first time she’s actually raced on soft ground. I think that’s probably the reason why she’s not been as visually impressive, but she’s still a Group 1 winner.
“It’s tough coming here. We came down with a big team, we’ve got nine runners today, we’ve had a couple of placed horses, but generally we’ve had a few disappointments, so to get the banker in was very [relieved].”
Michael Bell, the trainer of narrow runner-up Spicy Marg, was naturally delighted and frustrated with the result.
“She’s a smart filly and we’ve always thought she was very good,” Bell said. “It’s frustrating – but if you said coming here you’d be second beaten a head by Venetian Sun, you’d snap your hand off.
“Just the fact that she had the race won and then got beaten is the frustrating thing. If she just failed to get there, it would be easy, but the fact that she was in front and got chinned – that’s the hard bit, but equally, thrilled with her and she’s run her heart out, and good horses are what you want to have.
“She’s not in the July Cup – whether we supplement, or whether we go to York for the Group 3. We were going to go here, realistically we thought we’d be fourth or fifth at best, then go to York for the Summer Stakes, so on the back of that, what do we do? It’s a nice conversation to have.”
Following Friday’s Commonwealth Cup success, Venetian Sun was shortened into the 5-2 favourite from 9-2 for next month’s July Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket with Paddy Power.