uk racing Prosperous Voyage: had finished a good second in the 1,000 Guineas and maybe her Falmouth Stakes (G1) victory should not have been such a surprise
Joyous July
Newmarket’s summer course had it all scintillating weather, sumptuous racing and a big priced result to boot, writes Aisling Crowe
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N A GLORIOUS SUMMER’s week at Newmarket, star equines emerged to shine brighter than the sun. The most unexpected result of the July Meeting was Prosperous Voyage overturning previous form with Inspiral in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes. However, if form analysts looked hard enough, there were signs that Prosperous Voyage possessed the capability to upset the favourite. Runner-up to last season’s champion two-year-old in the Fillies’ Mile and May Hill Stakes, Ralph Beckett’s Zoffany filly was inches away from snatching 1,000 Guineas glory on the Rowley Mile in May when second to Cachet, but disappointed when only tenth behind Inspiral in the Coronation Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot prior to her Newmarket run. Her trainer saw the common thread linking all her best performances: “I think the key to her really is a straight track. “Around a bend she scraped home in her maiden at Epsom, but then she got beat at Chester but when she has run on a straight track she has run her race and today she did, too. “Maybe Inspiral didn’t turn up today, maybe she bounced, but this filly ran her
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Maybe Inspiral didn’t turn up today, maybe she bounced, but this filly ran her race and that is all that really matters if you are me! race and that is all that really matters if you are me!” Fourth on debut over an extended 6f at Doncaster, she showed resilience to get off the mark on her next start and then came that Chester second placing. After that she was tested in Group 3 company in Goodwood’s Prestige Stakes, in which she met trouble in running but managed to finish third. Then came her two juvenile runs behind Inspiral. She made her seasonal reappearance in
