John Gosden and Frankie Dettori do not have many Group-race winners at 18-1 - but then, they do not have many Group-race runners that finished 12th of 12 on their most recent start. That was the distinctly unpromising line of form next to Soul Sister’s name before the Musidora Stakes here on Wednesday, but the three-year-old confounded the market expectations with an emphatic four-length success in the last major trial for the Oaks, and she is now the 4-1 second-favourite (from 50-1) for the Classic on 2 June.
Soul Sister was a 6-1 shot for last month’s Fred Darling Stakes on heavy ground at Newbury, where she finished nearly 10 lengths behind the second-last filly over the line. She was transformed by better ground and an extra three furlongs, however, and closed ominously towards the stands’ side with just over a furlong to run before sweeping to the front and going further clear all the way to the line.
Soul Sister was bred by her owner, Lady Bamford, who also bred Sariska, the winner of both the Musidora and the Oaks in 2009, and will join her stable companion, Running Lion, in the field at Epsom next month. Aidan O’Brien’s Savethelastdance, the Cheshire Oaks winner, remains favourite for the fillies’ Classic, at a top price of around 13-8, from 5-4 on Wednesday morning.
“We were all puzzled a bit [after Newbury],” Dettori said, “but perhaps [it was] the ground and seven furlongs, and it was a point of the year when John’s horses all needed a run.
“John was pretty confident, he said I’m not going to run her for no reason, but I didn’t expect her to do that. She travelled, quickened twice and felt really good.”
Soul Sister was not the only filly to post an impressive win on the Dante meeting’s opening card as Azure Blue, who beat the top-class Highfield Princess by half a length in the Duke Of York Stakes, is likely to be moving into Group One company for her next start.
Michael Dods’s filly won a handicap from a mark in the 80s as recently as last September but her latest success was her fifth in six starts and came in a field that included three previous winners at Group One level.
“She’s done nothing but improve since the end of last season,” Dods said. “I think today she’s shown she’s a proper Group One horse.
Creative Force, the winner of the Group One Champions Sprint at Ascot in October 2021, was one of two horses to suffer fatal injuries while racing at York on the opening day of the Dante meeting.
Charlie Appleby’s five-year-old was pulled up after two furlongs of the Duke Of York Stakes, having suffered a serious leg injury.
“We are very saddened with the passing of Creative Force, who was a real yard favourite at Moulton Paddocks,” Appleby said in a statement on Godolphin’s website. “It’s a very sad day for everyone at Godolphin to lose a horse who always wore his heart on his sleeve and put up great performances year after year.”
In the final race on the card, Dubai Instinct, a seven-year-old trained by Michael and David Easterby who was making his first start since July 2021, was also put down after suffering an injury.
“Today was the start of her career realy in these races, we didn’t have her in some of the early-closing races [at Royal Ascot] and I don’t know what the supplementary fee is, but there’s plenty of targets to look forward to [and] the Prix de l’Abbaye [on Arc day in October] would be on my radar.”
The Foxes can upset fancied runners in Dante
With six of the 12 runners at single-figure odds in the early betting, Thursday’s Group Two Dante Stakes at York looks as open as any renewal for at least 20 years, while in terms of experience, the field includes everything from horses that were Group-race winners as juveniles to Sir Michael Stoute’s Passenger, who beat a field of debutants in last month’s Wood Ditton Stakes.
Passenger is a 20-1 shot for the Derby on the back of that sole success, but realistically he needs to progress by around a stone to trouble several of Thursday’s rivals, including Epictetus, the narrow favourite, who was three-and-a-half lengths behind the winner in last year’s Group One Vertem Futurity Trophy.
John Gosden’s colt won the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom with something to spare, but was up against just four opponents and all four have been beaten since.
A price of around 4-1 on Thursday looks thin on that evidence, and with Flying Honours, the second-favourite, possibly in need of a mile-and-a-half already, the 7-1 on offer about The Foxes (3.35) could be a better option.
Andrew Balding’s colt beat Dubai Mile, a subsequent Group One winner and fifth home in this month’s 2,000 Guineas, on his final start at two and made a fine start to his Classic season when second in the Craven Stakes last month. Thursday’s step up to a mile-and-a-quarter also seems sure to bring further improvement.
York 1.50 Group Three company proved a step too far for Mountain Peak last time but he has been dropped 1lb since a close third at Haydock in September and has run well off a break in the past.
Salisbury 2.05 Two first-time winners dominate the market in a valuable contest for juvenile fillies, with Juniper Berries narrowly preferred to Relief Rally after pulling nearly five lengths clear of her field at Bath last month.
York 2.25 It has been a stop-start career for Free Wind to this point but she has plenty in hand of the field here and should make a successful return to action if she is anywhere close to the form of her Lancashire Oaks win last summer, her sole start at four.
Salisbury 1.30 My Genghis 2.05 Juniper Berries 2.35 Palmar Bay 3.10 Jax Edge 3.45 Kingfisher King 4.20 Mantoog 4.55 Lionella
York 1.50 Mountain Peak 2.25 Free Wind 3.00 Northern Express (nap) 3.35 The Foxes (nb) 4.10 Walbank 4.45 Cuban Thunder 5.20 Rathgar
Perth 2.15 Bix Beiderbecke 2.50 Conkwell Legend 3.25 Aurora Thunder 4.00 Scots Poet 4.35 Everyday Champagne 5.06 Izzys Champion 5.38 Beauty To Behold
Fontwell 4.50 Stiletto 5.25 Mickyh 5.55 Any News 6.30 In The Air 7.05 Pure Theatre 7.40 Martin Spirit 8.15 Good News
Newmarket 5.15 Townsend Manor 5.45 Icy Dip 6.20 Spring Dawn 6.55 Global Esteem 7.30 Appier 8.05 Connemara Coast 8.40 Fierce
York 3.00 The ground was heavy when Northern Express put up a career-best to beat Pisanello – a winner next time – at Thirsk earlier this month, but Michael Dods’s gelding has form on a faster surface too and can defy a 3lb rise in the weights.
York 4.10 Last year’s Norfolk Stakes runner-up, Walbank, went on to finish third in the Molecomb at Glorious Goodwood and could well progress further this season with just four runs in the book to date.
