GOODWOOD, ENGLAND // Minding secured the sixth Group 1 win of her career with an authoritative display in the Nassau Stakes here Saturday.
Minding had little problem swatting aside her four rivals in the £600,000 (Dh2.9 million) contest and under a tactically astute ride from Ryan Moore, she finished a length and a quarter ahead of Queen’s Trust, ridden by Godolphin jockey James McDonald.
Jemayel, the French raider and only other Group 1 winner in the field, was third, while Swiss Range beat Godolphin’s Beautiful Romance to fourth.
In terms of what the daughter of Galileo achieved is questionable, and we learnt little new in a weak race for the grade other than she has an iron constitution having raced five times at the highest level over a variety of distances and ground conditions this season. To underline her versatility, she became the first English Oaks winner to land the Nassau Stakes in the same season.
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Moore, who has ridden Minding on her last six starts, was in awe of the filly who delivered the 32-year-old jockey his first win in the Nassau Stakes.
“To keep this filly coming back with as hard a campaign as she has had, she is a very special filly,” Moore said. “It is hard to know how good this filly is because she is doing it over different trips and she only does what she has to do.”
Minding could well keep rolling. She is entered in the International Stakes at York in three weeks and the Yorkshire Oaks at the same meeting. The Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on September 10, and the Matron Stakes on the same day, are also possibilities.
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe or Breeders’ Cup Turf remain the ultimate objectives, but O’Brien naturally wanted to keep his options open.
“I’m not sure what we will do with her now,” he said, having saddled his 11th Group 1 winner of the campaign. “She has a lot of options open to her now. The amazing thing about her is that she is probably ready to go down most roads now.” She doesn’t have to take on the colts if the owners decide not to. It’s great that she doesn’t mind running often.”
Minding was not the only horse on the eight-race card to notch their sixth victory at the highest level, and where Minding’s win was comfortable Al Mourtajez spread-eagled a high-class field in the Qatar International for Purebred Arabians.
Under an armchair ride from Julien Auge, the world’s highest-rated Purebred Arabian powered eight lengths clear of Prada T, who pipped for third last year’s winner Sir Bani Yas, owned by Sheikh Khalifa Al Nahyan, President of the UAE.
Sir Bani Yas beat Prada T 12 months ago, so for Al Mourtajez to beat them so convincingly on his first start over 1,600 metres led Elizabeth Bernard to predict the six-year-old winner would become the first horse to lift the Doha Triple Crown.
“I knew before the race that it was not possible to beat him,” Sir Bani Yas’s trainer said. “This horse is an extra-terrestrial. This horse will win the Purebred Arabian World Cup at Chantilly in October and then go on to win the Emir’s Sword. That is a true champion.”
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