Aidan O’Brien’s high-class three-year-old Whirl proved in a league of her own when routing her rivals in the Group 1 Qatar Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.
With torrential rain causing the ground to change to heavy and lightning in the area, Whirl had to overcome not only bottomless conditions but a flag start, with the starting stalls deemed unsafe to use.
Whilst some jockeys were opting to take their time at the flag start, Ryan Moore wasted little of his in getting Whirl into a rhythm, sending the classy three-year-old straight to the head of affairs.
As the race began to develop in the home straight, Andrew Balding's See The Fire looked to be travelling strongly in-behind under Oisin Murphy. However, Moore had saved plenty on the 6/5 market leader Whirl, who kicked for home at the two pole before stretching clear to defeat the surprise Coronation Stakes heroine Cercene by a commanding five lengths.
"Well done to everybody for getting the race on and keeping it going. Whirl is an amazing filly, and I am delighted for the lads," said O'Brien, who was winning the prize for the sixth time.
"She is a homebred by Wootton Bassett, she gets a mile and a half, handles all types of ground, and Ryan gave her a lovely ride.
"He was going to go forward on her and no one else in their right mind was going to want to make the running on that ground in these conditions, so I would say everyone was waiting on Ryan to go."
A winner of the Musidora Stakes in May, Whirl has gone from strength-to-strength throughout the season, finishing a neck behind stablemate Minnie Hauk in the Epsom Oaks before getting the better of King George runner-up Kalpana in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in June.
All options appear on the table for the daughter of Wootton Bassett, who was trimmed to 8/1 (from 10s) for the Arc by Paddy Power.
"She is just a very, very good filly," said the master of Ballydoyle. "Depending on what the lads want to do, she has all the options. She could go to York, or she could miss York and go to France for the Arc trials and the Arc. She is unusual as she has so many options and is so straightforward."
Comparing Whirl to her Epsom Oaks conqueror Minnie Hauk, O'Brien said: "Minnie Hauk is a great traveller, and you probably won't see the best of Minnie Hauk until she goes up in class against older horses where the tempo is very strong. What Minnie Hauk does is she is a very high cruiser, and we haven't seen that cruise in her races yet, but we have seen it at home.
"Even when she followed this filly at Epsom, she was finding it very easy to follow her, but you don't know what this filly is either and you probably won't know until they meet again.
"We saw what happened at Epsom when Ryan was very confident that he was going to get her, but she just kept coming with him. They are obviously very good fillies and when they do come together, we will find out."
