From the Rails: Sun Goddess Lights Up York
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There are performances during a major meeting that look impressive at the time, and then there are those which make you immediately wonder whether you have just seen a horse capable of doing something considerably bigger further down the line.
Sun Goddess certainly falls into the latter category after what she produced at York.
Aidan O’Brien’s filly arrived as a Group 1 winner and was entitled to be favourite for the Harry’s Half Million By Goffs, but the bare result doesn’t really do justice to what happened. With two furlongs remaining Ryan Moore was looking for room in a 22-runner field, found very little of it and was badly stopped at precisely the point when the race was beginning in earnest.
For most horses that would have been enough.
Once Moore managed to switch outside, however, Sun Goddess gathered herself remarkably quickly and swept past the field before stretching six lengths clear. Considering the amount of momentum she had lost, the manner in which she finished was arguably more impressive than the winning margin itself.
She is now firmly in the conversation for next year’s 1,000 Guineas and, while there is an awful lot of racing to come before Newmarket next spring, it isn’t difficult to understand why.
York also belonged to Andrew Balding, who enjoyed an outstanding four-timer on Yorkshire Oaks day, headed by Kalpana’s success in the feature. The Lost King, Prizeland and Machadadorp completed a memorable afternoon for Kingsclere and reinforced just how strong the Balding team remains when arriving at these major summer meetings.
The Ebor Festival rolls straight into another fascinating afternoon on Friday, with the Lonsdale Cup providing one of the most interesting races on the card.
Caballo De Mar attempts to put his disappointing Gold Cup run behind him after George Scott deliberately gave him time to recover and bypassed Goodwood, while Al Nayyir brings proven York form to the table. Amiloc finally gets the opportunity to show what he can do over this sort of trip with a jockey remaining aboard, while the return of Quickthorn after almost two years away adds another intriguing dimension.
There is still plenty to come from York, but whatever happens over the remainder of the meeting, Sun Goddess has already given us one performance that could look increasingly significant as the season develops.
Sometimes the most interesting thing about a big meeting isn’t simply who won.
It’s wondering what that victory might eventually lead to.
The John Mills View
I don’t like getting carried away with two-year-olds, particularly when people start talking about the following year’s Classics before the current season has even finished, but I thought Sun Goddess was exceptional at York.
The six-length winning margin will naturally grab attention, although for me that wasn’t the most impressive part of the performance. It was what happened before she got into the clear.
She lost her position at exactly the wrong time, had horses in front of her when Ryan Moore wanted to move and could quite easily have finished an unlucky third or fourth, leaving everybody saying she should have won. Instead, once she finally got daylight, she was able to regain her momentum almost immediately and then put six lengths between herself and the field.
Good horses win when everything falls perfectly for them. The very good ones sometimes find a way of winning when it doesn’t.
I’m not suggesting we should already be handing her the 1,000 Guineas trophy — racing has a wonderful habit of making fools of anyone who starts engraving trophies eight months early — but she showed something at York that you don’t see from the average juvenile.
The other thing I liked was the way she finished her race. There was no suggestion that the earlier trouble had emptied the tank and, on pedigree and what we’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t be concerned about her eventually stepping up to a mile.
There are plenty of good juvenile fillies still to show their hand and plenty can change between now and next May, but if you asked me for one horse from Thursday at York that I wanted to put in the notebook for the future, there wouldn’t be much hesitation.
Sun Goddess.
Let’s see where she takes us from here.
John Mills
Pro Racing Edge
