James Doyle may have missed a Group winner in France on Sunday when his flight to Deauville failed to take off but parachuted in to Goodwood to pick up a valuable consolation prize in the Virgin Bet Prestige Fillies’ Stakes aboard Light Of Dawn.

Wathnan’s retained jockey had been due to fly to Normandy to partner Hamad Al Jehani’s Diego Ventura, winner of the Group 3 Barriere Prix Quincey, only to be grounded at Duxford Airfield.

But after rerouting to the Sussex Downs, Doyle replaced Clifford Lee on the Showcasing filly and powered to a convincing success, landing the Group Three prize on the 4/1 shot by a length and a quarter from Eabha with the John and Thady Gosden-trained Baaeed filly Coaxed back in third.

“We got to the plane to go to Deauville but that didn’t take off but the plane to Goodwood was there so I switched over and I was quite lucky in that regard,” Doyle told Racing TV. “Obviously I’m delighted to get on her and I was very pleased with her.

“It worked out better than I could have wished for. The outside stall (in 10) was a bit of a concern because she is quite racy, so she needs a little bit of cover to help her switch off, but after going a furlong I was very comfortable.”

Trained by Karl Burke, Light Of Dawn had finished a creditable third in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot behind Libertango and Sun Goddess but had disappointed on faster ground at Deauville last time.

“She has done very little wrong in her short career. We took her to Deauville for what we thought was quite a nice race for her (Prix de Cabourg) but the ground was very quick that day so she didn’t enjoy that at all,” Doyle continued.

“We were keen to get her on a slower surface and this race seemed the obvious fit.

“In the Albany I felt I kicked a bit early with her because the whole field were congregating over towards the stands rail and I didn’t want to get trapped in and around the two furlong pole I let her roll and she was quite lonely from the two marker to half a furlong out and then two good fillies came over the top of me.

“But she was in good company that day and hopefully she can mix it with those again. Seven furlongs is not a problem. She is a big girl and I’m sure she will train on and be a better three-year-old so we will see what they want to do with her.”

He added: “It has been a big day for Wathnan though with Diego Ventura, Holguin winning in Germany and Leading Change in the Travers at Saratoga last night. It’s been a big weekend.”

German winner

Hamad Al Jehani and Faleh Bughenaim combined to win the 156th Casino Baden-Baden Goldene Peitsche for the second year running, as the Wathnan handler landed Group races in both Germany and France in the space of barely five minutes on Sunday.

The Qatari natives had joined forces to land the Baden-Baden Group 3 with The Strikin Viking last year and repeated the dose with Holguin this time around as the six-year-old made a successful drop back to six furlongs.

Victory in Germany came only minutes after Al Jehani’s Diego Ventura had won the Group Three Barriere Prix Quincey at Deauville and capped a fine 24 hours for the Wathnan team after Brad Cox’s Leading Change remained unbeaten in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga to outline his Breeders’ Cup Classic credentials.

Wathnan’s racing adviser Richard Brown said: “It was a great night in Saratoga last night and I said to the team out there that maybe the European division can add a little cherry today and we’ve managed to add two little cherries on top – it was a good five minutes!

“Hamad is in rich form and has formed a great team. He’s great to work with and I speak with him many times a day. His team and my team work incredibly hard to get these results and it’s tremendous to see. I’m delighted for Hamad and for the whole Wathnan team.”

Having landed Grade 1 success together in Canada last October, Holguin was yet another big-race success for Al Jehani and Bughenaim on the international scene, with the duo proving a formidable combination when linking up.

Brown went on: “Falah is a huge part of Hamad’s team and rides a lot of the difficult horses in the morning. Obviously it is difficult to give him too many chances as we’ve got a retained jockey in James (Doyle), but it was a busy day today and this opportunity arose.

“It was great to give him this chance, he works very hard, rides very well and I’m delighted to see him win another big race for us.”

Meanwhile in France, it was Christophe Soumillon who proved the able deputy aboard Diego Ventura after travel issues saw Wathnan number one Doyle rerouted to Goodwood.