3 minute read
Meade-trained colt set to have Derby preparation next season.
Lone Eagle fuelled Derby dreams for the Martyn Meade team with victory in the Godolphin Flying Start Zetland Stakes at Newmarket.
The Galileo colt demonstrated the best of his battling abilities in the Group Three contest, making his first attempt over a mile and a quarter a winning one.
Racing in the front pair throughout, the 16-5 shot showed stamina is very much his forte when forging clear late on to defeat his Sandown conqueror Recovery Run by a length and three-quarters, completing a hat-trick of wins for the season.
Assistant trainer Freddie Meade: "He showed a great attitude to knuckle down and get the job done. With the ground the way it is you don't want to be too far away.
"He has been headed in the past over shorter trips and battled back so I was always positive he would have enough to get on top in the end. We spoke back at Goodwood and we thought this might be a target so I'm glad it has come off.
"I think we have to dream of a Derby campaign first and see where we go on the way to that. Whether we look at a Derby trial and then we can always rethink if things change.
"I think that will be him for the year as he has progressed nicely and will have a well-deserved break."
Winning jockey Silvestre de Sousa – who enjoyed a Group-race treble at the track on Friday – believes Lone Eagle could develop into a contender for the Derby, for which he was introduced at 50-1 by Betfair.
He said: "It was a nice performance as it is not easy for a two-year-old on that kind of ground. He is really tough, he's not very big but he gallops with his heart out. I'm just pleased he has won three.
"Next year you could look at a Derby trial and then possibly the Derby if he keeps improving through the winter."
Henry Candy's Jouska ended a lengthy drought stretching back more than a year when opening her account for the campaign with a hard fought victory in the Dubai British EBF Boadicea Stakes.
Without a win to her name since Sandown last July, the daughter of Cable Bay set the record straight in the Listed prize when getting up late on to defeat Sunday Star by half a length.
Candy said: "It was very like the Cornwallis last year when Shane Foley rode her.
"She was stone last coming out the Dip and I thought it was going to be seriously embarrassing – thinking she was going to be 100 yards last – but she wanted another 50 yards to win as she finished a close third.
"She just loves coming up that hill and it's a question of getting to the bottom of it first.
"She is very gutsy and she will make the owner a lovely broodmare eventually as she is a lovely, big filly with a lovely temperament. We will take her home and give her two or three months in the paddock and hopefully she will be bigger and better next year."
Fozzy Stack got more than he bargained for after Lady Wannabe gained a breakthrough first Pattern-race victory in the Darley Stakes.
The daughter of Camelot built on her Listed win at Listowel last time out when prevailing by a length and three-quarters in the Group Three contest under Jamie Spencer.
Stack said of the 28-1 winner: "She had won two Listed races at home and we came over hoping to get a little bit of Group form on her page and we ended up getting a big bit of Group form.
"She is not very big but she is very tough. It is great for Jamie as we go back a long way and he has had a tough year.
"I'll talk to Tom (Gaffney, joint owner) about whether she will run again there is probably not much left for her to be honest."