QUADRILATERAL SQUARES UP TO RIVALS

It was a big ask for Khalid Abdullah’s Quadrilateral to step up from an impressive win in a Class 2 conditions race to tackle Group-winning rivals in the Gr.1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, but she proved up to the task – just. She raced in midfield as West End Girl (Golden Horn) made the early running until passed at half way by the Gr.1 Moyglare Stud Stakes victrix Love (Galileo). The field were closely bunched going into the dip, but Quadrilateral was still green on her third start and took a while to get into top gear. After the Gr.2 May Hill Stakes winner Powerful Breeze (Iffraaj) took the lead before the furlong marker, the Roger Charlton-trained chesnut made her run against the far fail and collared the leader in the final couple of strides for a head victory, while Love stayed on to finish third.

The win was a first domestic Gr.1 success for jockey Jason Watson and was trainer Roger Charlton’s first top-flight success with a juvenile filly. The filly is now the tenth Gr.1 winner for her sire Frankel and the second, after the Japanese filly Soul Stirring, to win a Gr.1 at two.

Charlton said: “Around three out, I thought ‘we are not running very well, we are off the bridle and it’s not going to happen’, but she kept responding and did really well to get there. It was a proper race today. She had an easy time at Newbury and we don’t gallop them hard at home. It took us a bit by surprise that she won so easily last time. but this was a proper test for her and she did it one hundred per cent. “She looks like she would stay a bit further. I would have no problem coming here for the Guineas without a prep.”

Quadrilateral is already favourite for next year’s Gr.1 1000 Guineas. The winner is from one of Juddmonte Farms’ top families, that descended from the Gr.1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Sookera (Roberto), dam of the Gr.1-winning sprinter and sire So Factual and Gr.3 winner and sire Bold Fact (both by Known Fact). Quadrilateral is a daughter of the winning Mizzen Mast mare Nimble Thimble, a half-sister to Group winner and sire Three Valleys (Diesis).