It’s a big weekend on the racing front as Longchamp gears up for the 2025 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The Sunday showpiece deservedly takes top billing, but it isn’t the only Group 1 contest on offer.
Closer to home on Saturday afternoon, Newmarket hosts one of the finest all-age fillies’ events of the season. Open to fillies and mares aged three and older, the £275,000 Sun Chariot Stakes grabs the limelight on a cracking card from HQ.
First run in 1966 and named in honour of the 1942 Fillies’ Triple Crown heroine, this one-mile contest boasts an illustrious roll of honour, including 1,000 Guineas winners Attraction, Sky Lantern, and Billesdon Brook.
With the final field confirmed, 10 go to post this year, with the market headed by a pair of fillies sporting some of the most recognisable silks in the sport.
Appleby Dreaming of a First Sun Chariot Success
Charlie Appleby’s trophy cabinet is overflowing with Group 1 trophies. However, Godolphin’s number one trainer has yet to claim Sun Chariot gold. Godolphin, meanwhile, won the race for the only time with the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Echoes In Eternity in 2003.
22 years after that solitary success for the boys in blue, Cinderella’s Dream is well fancied to end that hiatus. Now four years old, the Shamardal filly has represented Godolphin with distinction since her first win at Lingfield in 2023.
A big player on the international stage, she has picked up wins in Britain, Dubai, and the USA. The mount of William Buick also has a solid record on the Rowley Mile, finishing seventh in the 2024 2,000 Guineas and storming more than four lengths clear in the Dahlia Stakes in June. The pick of the field on ratings, she just shades favouritism with most firms.
Fallen Angel Back to Her Best
Yorkshire trainer Karl Burke won his only Sun Chariot Stakes when saddling Laurens to a famous success in 2018. That wonderful mare ended her career with six Group 1 wins to her name. As recently as June, the Wathnan Racing-owned Fallen Angel appeared unlikely to get close to Laurens’ tally. Struggling to rediscover the sparkle of her 2024 Irish 1,000 Guineas success, four successive defeats suggested her star may have waned.
However, the four-year-old has since bounced back to her brilliant best with back-to-back top-level triumphs in the Prix Rothschild and Matron Stakes.
A win here would take her Group 1 tally to five. Having finished just a quarter of a length behind Cinderella’s Dream on her only previous outing at this track, she has very little to find with the Godolphin runner.
Unbeaten Spain Seeks Win Number Six
At a general price of 15/8 and 9/4 respectively, Cinderella’s Dream and Fallen Angel dominate the betting. However, this is far from a two-horse race. As the only unbeaten filly in the field, Roger Varian’s Lady Of Spain is perhaps most likely to upset the market leaders.
Very lightly raced for a four-year-old, this daughter of Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Phoenix Of Spain is unbeaten in five starts at the track. Absences of 233 and 255 days suggest she has had her issues, but she looked as well as ever when winning the Group 3 Atalanta Stakes on her recent comeback. Now proven on turf and the all-weather, she has around six pounds to find with the principals but may be more open to improvement than most.
The Juddmonte filly Blue Bolt finished half a length behind Lady Of Spain in the Atalanta Stakes and had few excuses on the day. Three pounds worse off at the weights under these conditions, she will need to improve to turn the tables.
Atsila to Strike for Ireland
In the absence of three-time Sun Chariot winner Aidan O’Brien, Donnacha O’Brien carries the hopes of the powerful Irish training family. Best known as the trainer of the wonderful Porta Fortuna, Donnacha is no stranger to the Group 1 winners’ enclosure.
His three-year-old filly Atsila has yet to strike at the highest level but arrives on the back of a career-best third behind Fallen Angel in the Matron Stakes. Also sired by Phoenix Of Spain, she may have finished closer but for missing the break that day and looks well worth her place in the line-up.
Atsila gets off the mark in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Maiden for Gavin Ryan and Donnacha O’Brien pic.twitter.com/vd1bC32tDx
— Bellewstown Races (@BellewstownRace) April 5, 2025
Valiant Stakes winner Cheshire Dancer, Oak Tree Stakes heroine Saqqara Sands, and Matron Stakes fourth Cathedral are others to note in an excellent renewal. This race will run at 2:40 pm on Saturday, where we will find out who comes out on top.