Miami Girl

Miami Girl showed signs of inexperience before the juveniles’ five-furlong maiden that opened proceedings on 1000 Guineas day at Newmarket on Sunday, and some signs of inexperience during the race, but she quickened up impressively and she won well. She was slowly away, and she was keen through the first furlong, but Rossa Ryan got her settled back in behind the leaders by the time they got to the three-furlong marker. Moved to her right at the two-furlong marker and into the clear, she picked up really nicely when her rider asked her to. She led on the run down into the Dip and, although she hung to her left, she kept going forward and she pulled five and a half lengths clear of her rivals by the time she got to the winning line.

It was a really nice performance by Richard Hannon’s filly on her racecourse debut. Bought for €62,000 at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale last September by Peter and Ross Doyle, she is a half-sister to Eyes, a winner over seven furlongs and a mile, but she showed lots of speed here – she clocked 10.94secs for her penultimate furlong, the fastest furlong clocked by any horse in the race, and the only one that dipped below 11secs – so there is no real reason to go beyond five furlongs, at least for now. By King’s Stand Stakes runner-up Cotai Glory, she could be a Royal Ascot filly, a Queen Mary filly more than an Albany filly, and her trainer said that she could take in the Marygate Stakes at York or the National Stakes at Sandown en route. She should be even better off a faster pace. Interestingly, Richard Hannon won this race in 2019 with Threat, who finished second in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot on his next run before going on to win the Gimcrack Stakes and the Flying Childers Stakes.
Newmarket, 1^st May 2022