THURSDAY 3.40pm
G2 Ribblesdale Stakes
1m4f
EARTH SHOT
1st
Race report
After the Oaks, Britain’s most prestigious high-summer race for middle-distance fillies. An outsider unshipped her rider on leaving the stalls, and she then vied for the lead throughout, causing a fair amount of disruption for the other runners to dodge. The Wathnan filly Earth Shot had seen her form receive a recent G1 boost – her narrow Goodwood conqueror Inis Mor ran third in the Prix de Diane – and looked nailed on to relish this greater test of stamina. So it proved. Reeling out wide on the home turn as those inside fought clear of the loose horse, she rapidly rediscovered forward momentum under a galvanising James Doyle ride, yet still had some lengths to make up inside the final furlong. Earth Shot got up only in the shadow of the post, and is capable of showing even better form in a race with less drama. She is the 13th Wathnan horse to have won at Royal Ascot.
FULL RACE REPLAY
Preview
There’s a conviction in racing that some events in the calendar are ‘stallion-making races’. Here’s the other side of the coin: a ‘mare-making race’, one that we look back on and see some of the best broodmares in the bloodstock business.
Windmill Girl, dam of not one but two Derby winners; she won it. Shoot A Line, grandmother of Thunder Gulch, winner of the Kentucky Derby; she too. High Hawk, Hellenic, Alydaress: all famous progenitors, all Ribblesdale heroines.
Wathnan’s recent purchase Earth Shot has already identified herself as quality broodmare prospect. A five-length maiden winner at Newmarket’s Guineas meeting, and then only just beaten in a Stakes race at Goodwood, rallying admirably as the furlongs ticked by. She will plainly relish today’s 12f trip and is just the sort of late-maturing improver this race often rewards.
“Sprinting’s not her game. This should be.”
Trainer William Haggas
