Viola

Viola did well to close as well as she did, and get to within a half a length of the winner Sea La Rosa in the 12-furlong fillies’ handicap at Doncaster on Friday. Dropped in early on from her outside draw by Daniel Muscutt, she was still last of the seven runners when they straightened up for home. She made good ground towards the far side on the run to the two-furlong marker, she tracked Sea La Rosa through. She picked up well too as the winner picked up in front of her and, while she couldn’t catch her, she closed to within three-parts of a length of the admittedly idling winner by the time they got to the winning line.

It was another good performance by James Fanshawe’s filly. The winner is a progressive three-year-old filly, and she picked up smartly from a better position, and Viola kept on strongly all the way to the line, pulling over two lengths clear of the third-placed Ms Gandhi. Winner of a handicap over a mile and a half at Lingfield last season, her only win in six attempts in 2020, she won two of her previous three races this season, including another fillies’ handicap at Doncaster, in which she stayed on well to beat Sea La Rosa by a neck to record her first win on turf. The handicapper raised her by 3lb to a mark of 90, but she remains progressive enough to give herself a chance of coping with that hike. She stays well, she could go out in trip and, a daughter of Sistine, who recorded her sole win at Southwell, it may be that she will show her best form on artificial surfaces, or at Ascot or Doncaster, where she has now put up two of the best performances of her career. The Park Hill Stakes back at Doncaster next year is a legitimate long-term target, but she will be of interest now back at one of Doncaster’s meetings in October or November, or at Ascot in October, although she is unproven on soft ground, or on the all-weather thereafter, and she will be of particular interest if and when she steps up in trip.
Doncaster, 10^th September 2021