Highfield Princess enhanced the impressive record of fillies and mares in the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes to lead home a Yorkshire-trained one-two-three in the Friday feature at York.
Trained locally in Malton by John Quinn, the versatile five-year-old was making just her second start over the minimum trip and was bagging her second Group One victory in the space of a fortnight having scooped the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville earlier this month.
Richard Fahey's The Platinum Queen blazed a trail off a featherweight of 8st in the hands of Hollie Doyle and looked set to become the first juvenile filly since Lyric Fantasy in 1992 to waltz away with this Group One prize.
But Jason Hart and 5-1 shot Highfield Princess soon loomed large in the shadows to put her perfect blend of speed and stamina to expert use in the closing stages and storm to a going-away two-and-a-half-length victory.
The victory means she is the first horse since Handsome Sailor in 1988 to follow up victory in York’s 1895 Duke of York Stakes with the Nunthorpe.
Quinn is favouring one more run in France before heading to America for the Breeders’ Cup meeting in the autumn.
He said: "She didn’t run at two and it took her quite a while to learn her trade. She won three races as a three-year-old and then last year she won at Royal Ascot and she was placed in several Group races. This year she won the All-Weather Final at Newcastle and then we said we’d run in the Duke of York and she romped up.
"She ran very well at Royal Ascot and then she won well in France 12 days ago. She’s come back and won really well here.
"We put her in the Foret and the Abbaye, so all being well two more runs – Foret or Abbaye, and the Breeders’ Cup.
"I’m delighted to have
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