Content hands Galileo a landmark winner the in Yorkshire Oaks
On an historic day for Coolmore Stud, Content (3 f Galileo – Mecca’s Angel by Dark Angel) continued her progressive ways when registering a maiden Group 1 success in Thursday’s Yorkshire Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) at York.
Having been a Group 3 winner as a juvenile, where she beat the now Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Kitty Rose (Invincible Army), the daughter of Galileo returned for her Classic season with a pair of below-par efforts in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Gr 1, 1600m) and Coronation Stakes (Gr 1, 1m).
However, stepped up to a mile and two furlongs for the Pretty Polly Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) Content stayed on for third place, before stepping up again in trip when coming home strongly for a second-placed finish behind You Got To Me (Nathaniel) in the Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f).
Sent off the 3-1 favourite on the back of those two promising efforts, Content, who is remarkably out of dual Group 1-winning sprinter Mecca’s Angel (Dark Angel), travelled up well with two furlongs to go and, once asked for her full effort under Ryan Moore, stayed on strongly towards the far-side rail to beat You Got To Me by three-quarters of a length, reversing the Irish Oaks form from the Curragh and becoming her sire’s 100th individual elite-level winner in the process.
Emily Upjohn (Sea The Stars), who had also finished in front of the winner in the Pretty Polly Stakes, finished third, beaten a length and three-quarters by the winner.
“If she’d done everything right she’d have won easily,” the winning rider said, after his mount had been keen throughout.
“It’s taken her a while, and we’re still not there, but it was a very good performance. She showed last year she was a good two-year-old and she’s finally got her Group 1.
“My only thinking was to try and get her to relax, which I didn’t achieve, and then it was making the best of a bad situation. She’s a typical Galileo, she’s very brave and gives you everything. I’ve been lucky to ride so many of them. I think that’s his 100th individual Group 1 winner, he’s been a sensational stallion.”
Aidan O’Brien, who was enjoying his eighth winner of the Yorkshire Oaks, just one behind Sir Michael Stoute and Mathew Dawson’s record of nine, said of his filly: “She was unbelievable. She’s come forward since the Curragh when we had a pacemaker who didn’t go fast enough for her and the race never opened for her that day.
“Ryan gave her an incredible ride as she’s not straightforward or easy. The pace was stronger today and she did keep coming. She was a very brave filly and will be better in a faster-run race.”
Content is out of Mecca’s Angel, whose two best days on a racecourse came at York in the 2015 and 2016 Nunthorpe Stakes (Gr 1, 5f), and she is also the dam of the fellow O’Brien-trained Bedtime Story (Frankel), who is unbeaten in three starts and was most recently seen winning last month’s Silver Flash Stakes (Gr 3, 7f) at Leopardstown.
Content was a best-priced 6-1 for the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 4f) following Thursday’s win, and best-priced 8-1 for the Breeders’ Cup Fillies & Mares Turf (Gr 1, 11f).