A new season steps up a gear

Already there are some interesting contenders to follow on the Flat

THE Flat season is just getting going here and there were two things to note over the weekend; the victory of Champion Stakes winner Addeybb down under in the Group One Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick, Sydney, and the win of Snow Lantern (pictured) at Newbury.

Addeybb is a remarkable gelding and was given a superb ride by Tom Marquand, whose raison d’etre in Sydney for the last six weeks was Saturday’s race. There has never been much between him and the smart Australian mare Verry Elleegant and, on quicker ground than he likes, there was just half a length in it this time.

They have been first or second on each of the four times they have met now, with Addeybb winning three of them. And the first man on the phone to congratulate William Haggas was Verry Elleegant’s trainer, Chris Waller.

The race was worth nearly £1.4m to the winner which, to put things into perspective, is prize money Haggas will just about earn here by July if he has a good first half of the season.

There was no better bred filly at Newbury on Sunday than the Richard Hannon-trained Snow Lantern – by Frankel out of Sky Lantern, Richard Hannon Senior’s 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes winner.

Her win in the mile maiden slightly eclipsed the Guineas trial winners – Alcohol Free in the Dubai Duty Free Fred Darling Stakes and her stable companion, Chindit, in the Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes.

Last year she had just the one run, finishing second from a long way back, at Ascot.

“I haven’t enjoyed watching a race so much for a long time,” said Hannon after Snow Lantern had cruised through the race to beat Derab by 1¾ lengths.

“She’s highly strung at home and I was expecting her to be keen. I’ve never known a filly go quite so like the dam. In fact, I got Richard Hughes to sit on her recently and told him it would be like going back eight years.

“She got a bit weak after her run last year, so we said we’d leave it to this year and it seems to have worked. I’d be tempted by the Guineas. Her mother handled Newmarket, but I’d sooner be beaten by the undulations than not being good enough.

“Ben Keswick, her ownerbreeder, is keen to get some black type and not to chuck her in at the deep end, so she could also go to York. She’ll get an entry in the Oaks, too.”