Mohedian Lady

Mohedian Lady impressed in winning a listed race over a mile and a half at Newmarket on Thursday. She travelled like the best filly in the race by some way, she picked up really impressively and she won with plenty in hand. Three-year-old fillies are doing well at present, and this is a race in which they have done particularly well in recent times (they had won four of the previous five renewals and five of the previous seven), but she still did it takingly. The time was good, a new course record, albeit that there was a strong tailwind helping them through the final 10 furlongs, and there has to be a doubt about the actual distance of the race since the time was a second faster than the old course record.

Luca Cumani's filly had looked like she would be suited to a step up to this 12-furlong trip when coming through late on with Creme Anglaise, the pair of them pulling clear of their rivals, to win a handicap at Nottingham on her penultimate run before Thursday. Sure enough, she was upped to a mile and a half next time in a big-field handicap at Leopardstown on Irish Champion Stakes day. She lost her place around the home turn there, however, having had a wide trip throughout, before staying on again in the home straight to finish sixth. She showed a lot of pace here though, she was always travelling kindly for Kieren Fallon just in behind the leaders. Darryll Holland on Bramalea appeared content to allow Colm O'Donoghue on Spin dictate the pace, so the gallop wasn’t as strong as it might have been. Mohedian Lady cruised to the front three furlongs out, however, and picked up best of all and, in effect, she had the race won some way out, although Imperial Pippin did her best to throw down some sort of challenge.

The mile and a half is fine for Mohedian Lady, but on this evidence she shouldn’t have a problem stepping back down in trip to a mile and a quarter, and interestingly Cumani mentioned the Group 2 Middleton Stakes at York’s Dante meeting in May as a possible starting point for her next season. That race is over 10 furlongs and often features Group 1 horses or horses with Group 1 aspirations (Midday won it this year). It seems as though this could be it for her for this season, connections clearly think they have a potentially high class filly for next year. She moved well on this quick ground but she handles an easy surface too (she won her maiden last year on soft ground), and she is an exciting filly.

22nd September 2011

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