DONCASTER THURSDAY

JOHN Gosden has enjoyed a memorable season and his fillies in particular have been in outstanding form. Two more obliged on Thursday as Gretchen wore down her rivals in the Group 2 DFS Park Hill Stakes and California easily followed up in the fillies’ handicap.

Vive Ma Fille took them along in the Park Hill but David Elsworth’s Melodious went on two furlongs out with Asyad joining issue.

However, it was Gretchen (5/1) who got up close home to beat the pair by a neck and half a length. John Kiely’s Ebor fourth Toe The Line ran well to fill the same position again.

Gretchen, a daughter of Galileo, had won a listed race at Newmarket last time and this was another step forward. Her future rests with owner-breeders the Normandie Stud but her half-brother Samuel won the Doncaster Cup in 2010 and a similar path may prove tempting.

“It was always the plan to come here,” Gosden said. “She may have to take on the colts or maybe we’ll just freshen her up, see if she stays in training and then have a go at the Cup races when she’s older and stronger.”

Rab Havlin has quietly gone about his business as an understudy and it was good to see him on a Group 2 winner.

He was also on California, who passed several rivals in the straight and landed the 10-furlong handicap from Roxy Star. She will be aimed at listed races in France in October and November.

REALTRA AGAIN

Richard Fahey has so many winners that he can probably offer a wry smile when a former inmate turns up trumps.

It certainly seems that the Newmarket air has perked up Realtra, who scored again for Roger Varian in the Group 3 Japan Racing Association Sceptre Stakes over a mile.

She came right across several rivals inside the final furlong, earning Jack Mitchell an eight-day suspension, but kept the race after beating Pelerin by two and a half lengths.

Terror finished third and the SPs were 25/1, 66/1 and 25/1 with 3/1 favourite Fadayyil fourth after being checked. She was probably second-best on merit.

It was appropriate that a Japanese owner should prevail. Yasushi Kubota paid £290,000 for Realtra at the London sale and she joined Varian from Fahey after running in the Sandringham at Royal Ascot.

“This is his first horse in Britain,” Varian said. “I’d have been disappointed if she hadn’t finished in the first four and I thought she was over-priced today, maybe because Jack was on her, but he works hard and we like to give him opportunities when we can.”

FAHEY STRIKES

Fahey soon had a winner to celebrate when 10/1 chance Mr Lupton produced a strong late run for Jamie Spencer to beat 7/2 favourite Humphrey Bogart by a head in the Weatherbys Hamilton £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes, a sales race worth some £215,000 to winning connections, in this case Fahey and Noel Kershaw.

Mr Lupton was only just inched out in the Super Sprint at Newbury, also won by Fahey, and there were a few anxious moments here as the stewards deliberated whether he had impeded the favourite close home but the result stood.

Kershaw became part-owner following a charity auction where he supported Graham Wylie’s Children’s Heart Unit Foundation.

He named the horse after his grandfather and chose green and white colours to honour his father, a committed Bradford Park Avenue supporter.

“It’s my first horse and the whole thing is just unbelievable,” he said. Needless to say, it was much more routine for the trainer, who ran six this time and also won the race last year with Bond’s Girl.

The 7/4 favourite in a 19-runner fillies’ nursery may sound unappealing but Jeremy Noseda’s Nemoralia had finished second to Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle at Newmarket in July and backers relied on her to defy 9st 7lb in the British Stallion Studs-supported opener. She led for Frankie Dettori a furlong out and eased clear to account for Sharaakah by a length.

Noseda always has one eye on the US and feels the winner, by More Than Ready, could prove best on dirt eventually. He does not tilt at windmills and will give the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies serious consideration.

It has been a good year for Jamie Spencer, who completed a double on Luca Cumani’s 10/1 shot Blue Waltz in the mile and a quarter handicap, while David O’Meara saddled first and second in the closing six-furlong cavalry charge. Rex Imperator, 13/2 favourite and way down the handicap since his Stewards’ Cup-winning days for William Haggas, just pipped Regal Dan in the hands of David Nolan.

Godolphin’s well-grown, attractive youngster Very Talented got off the mark in the mile maiden, winning every bit as tidily as his 4/6 SP suggested he might.