Moonlight Spirit

Moonlight Spirit did well to stay on as well as he did in the Queen’s Vase to take fourth place behind Dashing Willoughby. It was a race in which it was difficult for the hold-up horses to get into it. The first three home, Dashing Willoughby, Barbados and Nayef Road, occupied the first three places from early. Moonlight Spirit was no better than eighth as they started to round the home turn. He circled the field, he came about five horse-widths wide and, while it never really looked like he was going to get to the leaders, he stayed on best of all to take fourth place, just over three lengths behind the winner.

It was a fine performance by the Godolphin colt on just his fifth run ever. Winner of a 10-furlong maiden at Newcastle on his racecourse debut last November, he won his first two races as a three-year-old this season before he finished third in a Group 3 race at Longchamp. He stayed the one-mile-and-six-furlong trip well here, and he shaped as if he could do even better with an even stiffer stamina test. He is lightly raced, and he has the potential to progress further.

Ascot, 19^th June 2019