The continued rise of Cape Cross filly Crystal Capella reaped even greater rewards on Saturday when she took the inaugural running of the mile-and-a-half (2400m) G2 Pride Stakes at Newmarket.
Finishing second on her first two starts, she has now rattled off a five-timer in increasingly tougher company: today's win saw her hold off St Leger runner-up Unsung Heroine by a head. Another Cape Cross filly, Saphira's Fire, who won the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket in the spring, was third.
Running in the colours of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and bred by his family's Southcourt Stud, Crystal Capella is the first foal of the Stakes-winning Mark Of Esteem mare Crystal Star. She is due to stay in training next season.
It has been a tremendous week for Cape Cross who has sired four individual Stakes winners in the past eight days. Bermuda Rye started the ball rolling at Saint-Cloud last Friday and was soon followed by Hatta Fort's Group Three win in the US. Charlie Farnsbarns landed the G3 Darley Stakes at Newmarket on Friday, while Group two winner Russina Cross finished fourth to New Approach in the G1 Champion Stakes. To date, Cape Cross has sired 11 Stakes winners this year from his European runners.
Group Three winner Finjaan, by Royal Applause, came agonisly close to a Group One victory in the Darley Dewhurst Stakes when he was involved in a three-way photo finish with Intense Focus and Lord Shanakill. Finjann was eventually awarded third, beaten a nose and a nose.
On Sunday at Seymour the Singspiel colt Aztec Smytzer came with a well-timed run from last to first to land the one-mile (1600m) Listed Seymour Cup by one-and-three-quarter lengths.
Trained in Adelaide by Byron Cozamanis, the six-year-old was recording his second victory at Stakes level after taking the Springtime Stakes at Flemington.
It has been another successful year for Singspiel who sired the recent G1 E P Taylor Stakes winner Folk Opera, a result that means he has sired a top-flight winner in each of the last six years. Folk Opera is now Breeders Cup bound and pre-entered in the Fillies' & Mares Turf, a race won be her paternal half-sister Lahudood last year.
