Exceed And Excel, Elusive Quality and Cape Cross all celebrated Group Two winners in Europe on Saturday in the Lowther Stakes, the Celebration Mile and Deauville's Prix Guillaume d'Ornano.
The astonishingly successful first year enjoyed by the progeny of young Australian-bred dual-hemisphere sire Exceed And Excel was further embellished by the success of his daughter Infamous Angel in the G2 Lowther Stakes, transferred from York to Newmarket. Furthermore, this race proved particularly satisfying for Darley because the first three home were all sired by Darley stallions.
Exceed And Excel only had his first runner on 6 October last year when Exceedingly Good made a winning debut in the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes at Flemington, but in the intervening period he has won Australia’s first-season sires’ premiership, established himself the champion-elect in Britain and Ireland, and been represented by fourteen individual Stakes performers, of whom Exceedingly Good, Wilander, Believe’N’Succeed and now Infamous Angel have won at Group level and Sugar Babe, Outdo and Flashman’s Papers (at Royal Ascot) have tasted Listed success. Infamous Angel’s win in the Lowther Stakes ranks as one of his best successes to date, as the race is one of Britain’s premier events for two-year-old fillies, and was won last year by the subsequent G1 Falmouth Stakes heroine Nahoodh. Infamous Angel, who was bred by Bricklow Stud from the unraced Sadler’s Wells mare Evangeline, is now likely to be aimed at more of the top fillies’ races by her trainer Richard Hannon and owners Geoff Howard-Spink and Peter Marshall.
In a thrilling finish, Infamous Angel got home by a nose from Penny’s Gift, a daughter of Tobougg, the former dual Group One-winning juvenile who is now responsible for a solid flow of good horses in both hemispheres, including NZ Group One winner The Pooka and Sweet Lilly, winner of three Stakes races in the UK. Third home, only a head behind Penny’s Gift, came Langs Lash; previously the winner of the G2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, she this brave filly made a bold bid to make all the running in the Lowther Stakes. Like Infamous Angel, Langs Lash was conceived at Kildangan Stud, being a daughter of the 2001 Sussex Stakes winner Noverre.
There was yet more success for Darley in the Celebration Mile at Goodwood when Raven’s Pass ran home the easy winner for a much deserved victory. The three-year-old Elusive Quality colt is a thoroughly genuine performer who has finished runner-up in three Group One contests this season and was fourth in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
In Deauville, Russian Cross, a three-year-old colt by Cape Cross, confirmed his early promise with victory in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano over 2000m for the third win of his career. First-season sire Refuse To Bend has had seven winners to date and his most recent, Canwinn, was in action again and became his first Stakes performer with a valiant effort in the Listed Criterium du Fonds Europeen d'Elevage (1600m) when losing out by a short neck to winner Sokar, by Darley's French-based sire Slickly.
