Recap from Newmarket including the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes…
- Dance To The Music retains unbeaten record in Sweet Solera
- Zanthos impresses on racecourse début
Full-sister to Space Blues, Dance To The Music (Dubawi) retained her unbeaten record at Newmarket with a victory in the seven-furlong Group 1 Sweet Solara Stakes.
The Sweet Solera Stakes has an increasing reputation as a Classic indicator for the following year, with Irish 1000 Guineas heroines Fallen Angel and Lake Victoria taking the contest in 2023 and 2024.
Charlie Appleby's Dance To The Music was an impressive winner of a six-furlong Newmarket (Rowley Mile) novice event in mid-May, where she had shown signs of inexperience before securing a one length success. Given time to develop physically and mentally, she was returning after a near-three month absence and started second favourite behind Ed Walker's Midnight Tango.
Ridden by Billy Loughnane, the daughter of Dubawi always travelled prominently behind early leader Venetian Lace and took over the lead with a furlong to run. She faced a considerable challenge from Princess Petrol in the closing stages, drifting right as she battled the Ed Walker-trained filly, before securing a neck victory. Charlie Johnston's Venetian Lace held on for third, a further half-length behind.
Appleby said: "That was very pleasing. She is a filly who is a full-sister to Space Blues and so your heart sometimes rules your head when you get involved with these pedigrees. She is so much more forward than Space Blues, who didn't run until November at Nottingham.
"This filly came out in the spring and Billy rode her that day on the Rowley Mile. He said she was very weak and raw, which she was really. We have given her all the time to do what she needs to do at this stage of her career and the step up to seven – we felt it was the right time to do it.
"She has that turn of foot as well which Billy used today. When you have got a Charlie Johnston horse on the front end, you have got to respect that and sit close to its girth. Billy said I was never going to outstay one of theirs, so he used that acceleration he had underneath him, and I think that was probably the winning of the race."
By Dubawi, Dance To The Music is a full-sister to the dual Group/Graded winner Space Blues, successful in both the Prix de la Foret and the Breeders' Cup Mile. He stands at Darley's Kildangan Stud for a 2025 fee of 16,000 euros.
Bought for 1,000,000 euros at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, Zanthos began to repay her purchase price for new connections KHK Racing by winning the valuable Tattersalls £40,000 EBF "Newcomers'' Maiden Fillies' Stakes on racecourse debut.
Carried right by Al Qaysiyya as the stalls opened, the Oisin Murphy-ridden filly made up swift ground to lead the group of six debutante fillies. Asked for an effort with a furlong to run, she extended away from the field, recording an easy three length success over Classic Cuvee, with Deedaydiva a further one-and-three-quarter lengths back in third.
By Sioux Nation, Zanthos is out of Brioniya, placed in Listed company for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupree, who has already produced a Black Type performer in Bakhchisaray.
