3 minute read
Charlie Appleby looks to have a real star on his hands after Desert Flower turned the Group 1 bet365 Fillies' Mile into a complete procession at Newmarket on Friday.
Twice an impressive winner over seven furlongs on Newmarket's July Course in the summer, Desert Flower returned to action with a smooth success in the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last month.
Sent off the well-backed 10/11 favourite, the daughter of Night Of Thunder quickly proved she was capable of mixing it at Group 1 level when propelled to the front by William Buick heading into the dip.
January, who was one of three contenders attempting to give Aidan O'Brien a record-extending seventh victory in the Group 1 prize, travelled kindly throughout and briefly looked to be going best, but Ryan Moore's mount was soon left chasing shadows as Desert Flower surged into an unassailable advantage.
Charlie Appleby's filly wandered right-handed under pressure, but it never looked like stopping her forward momentum and the winning margin was eventually a striking five and a half lengths. January was the best of the rest back in second, with her stablemate Ballet Slippers a further half-length behind in third.
"You couldn't be any more impressed," said Appleby of the winner, who was cut to 7/1 (from 10s) for next year's 1000 Guineas by Paddy Power. "At Doncaster when you have an unbeaten filly going into a May Hill everyone was expecting a bit of a 'wow'.
"She was harder to manage – going down to post she took William on, I wasn't there that day and Alex Meriam (assistant), and the team did a great job, but she took some managing.
"William wasn't sure what sort of filly he was going to have that day but once she jumped off in the race and he popped her in behind one, ultimately she switched off and did it the right way round."
He added: "Today I thought she paraded very well, and everything was nice and calm and collected. It is always nice at this level to control all that energy. She will be a more mature filly for this in the spring.
"She is a filly who has pleased us, we were confident in her maiden, and she has just kept pleasing us throughout. She's not an exciting filly in the morning, but the way she does stuff and pulls up at the end of a gallop, it is as if she hasn't been through a gallop.
"She won't go five-lengths clear in a gallop, but she will go a length ahead of a nice lead horse, pull up and walk home and that encourages you. The team were very positive coming into today that if she was good enough, she had done everything right at home.
"I think we've all seen her going round the paddock and she is a big, scopey filly, if she puts another 20 kilos on over the winter I will be delighted to see her in the spring. She hasn't got to and she's running well enough in the condition she is in, but naturally, you would love to see her put a bit of condition on over the winter.
"That is definitely her done for the year. I don't see much point in going away from where we are at the moment (a mile) next season. Could she stretch out to 10 furlongs? Possibly. She's a nice horse to go into winter with and we will be back in the spring."