On form, not much appears to separate the 3-year-old filly Whirl and the 4-year-old filly See The Fire. What does separate them Thursday at Goodwood Racecourse in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes is weight.
In the Nassau, a gender-restricted weight-for-age race contested at 1 1/4 miles, 3-year-olds get nine pounds from their older rivals. But See The Fire has other, more positive data points behind her. She drops in class from the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, a Royal Ascot Group 1 where she faced a cast of high-level males. And See The Fire’s closest brush with Group 1 glory came in this very race one year ago.
The filly who beat her a neck, Opera Singer, raced for trainer Aidan O’Brien and had Ryan Moore on her back. Those are the same connections behind Whirl, who capitalized on a 12-pound weight break beating the very good 4-year-old filly Kalpana on June 28 going 1 1/4 miles in the Group 1 Pretty Polly at The Curragh.
Goodwood and The Curragh, a vast expanse of Irish field where the bends are gentle and the homestretch is a full three furlongs, hardly could be more divergent racecourses. But Whirl has shown she can handle quirks, finishing second by a neck to her excellent stablemate Minnie Hauk in the Oaks at Epsom Downs. Like Goodwood, Epsom is known for its unique, challenging layout.
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Final declarations for the Nassau weren’t due until Tuesday, but the top two choices, barring the unforeseen, are confirmed runners. Five others remained in the race as of Monday, among them Cercene, another talented 3-year-old. Cercene upset French raider Zarigana in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot but has never raced beyond one mile. She’s by Australia, a strong source of stamina, but is out of a Tschierschen, who sprinted during her racing career and has produced four sprinter-milers as a broodmare.
Kalpana flattered Whirl on July 26, when she finished a staying-on second behind hot favorite Calandagan in the Group 1, 1 1/2-mile King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. See The Fire, however, exits what probably was a stronger overall race in the Prince of Wales’s, where she did not have especially smooth passage. Hemmed along the fence much of her trip, See The Fire had run in upper stretch but no room to stretch her stride until jockey Oisin Murphy dropped her to the fence and belatedly found a gap. See The Fire came willingly through, but by then, two tough older horses, Ombudsman and Anmaat, had come hard on the outside.
The competition gets lighter in the Nassau, while the burden See The Fire carries gets considerably heavier.
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