Shadow Of Light and Lake Victoria head European juveniles in classifications
Aidan O'Brien is eyeing Classic glory with the unbeaten Lake Victoria after she was confirmed as the Champion European Two-Year-Old Filly for 2024.
The daughter of Frankel rattled off five straight victories as a juvenile, the last three of which came at Grade One level over a trio of different distances.
Having claimed the Moyglare Stud Stakes over seven furlongs at the Curragh, she dropped back to six for Newmarket’s Cheveley Park and then closed her campaign with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf over a mile at Del Mar.
A rating of 119 means only Minding has managed a higher rating from O’Brien’s eight past winners in the leading filly category.
The Ballydoyle handler said: "What she did was very unusual, you couldn’t really believe that a two-year-old filly would do that – to win all three Group Ones over three different distances.
"She’s obviously quick and she got a mile well in America the last day. You’d imagine that she’s going to be a miler-type and might get a mile and a quarter.
"She’s by Frankel and out of Quiet Reflection, who was very quick, but she’s big, she’s powerful and has a great mind, plus a great constitution.
"She was obviously going through her races very easily and doing her work very easily. If you see her in a race, she travels very well and when she quickens, she puts a lot of her races to bed.
"But obviously she has a lot of class, that’s what she has and it made her very different."
Shadow Of Light is set to go straight to the Qipco 2000 Guineas after being crowned the Champion Two-Year-Old of 2024, giving Godolphin and Charlie Appleby their third such success in the last six seasons.
Appleby's Pinatubo topped the ratings in 2019 with a magnificent mark of 128 and Native Trail led