Cheveley Park option for Sacred

Horse Racing

Molly Hunter
August 27, 2020 3:19 pm

Smart filly has produced fine efforts at Royal Ascot and York.

Cheveley Park Stud have their ‘own’ race in mind as they plot the next steps of high-class two-year-old Sacred.

The William Haggas-trained filly was beaten by just a length during York’s Ebor meeting when contesting the Group Two Sky Bet Lowther Stakes over six furlongs.

That performance followed an even narrower defeat at Royal Ascot in June, where she finished three-quarters of a length behind Campanelle in the Group Two Queen Mary Stakes.

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The form of that race has since been elevated by Campanelle’s victory in the Darley Prix Morny at Deauville on Sunday, where Wesley Ward’s filly defeated Clive Cox’s Nando Parrado by two lengths.

Sacred (right, blue cap) made Campanelle pull out all the stops at Royal Ascot (Edward Whitaker/PA)

Acknowledging that the good to soft going at York did not suit their filly, connections are now looking ahead to their sponsored race at Newmarket, the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes.

“We were delighted,” said the stud’s managing director, Chris Richardson, of Sacred’s York performance.

“The ground was probably a factor. Most of the progeny by her sire, Exceed And Excel, like the top of the ground, so conditions weren’t ideal. She still ran very well and obviously the form was franked in France at the Prix Morny.

“We’re still deciding (where to go), the end game would be the Cheveley Park but we’ll probably go somewhere in between, though we haven’t quite decided where.”