Highfield Princess was a warm favourite to repeat last year’s win in the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes on the back of her recent win at Goodwood. But for the third time this year the star filly couldn’t quite get it done at the top level and it was one of the longer priced runners, Live In The Dream, who made every inch of the running to hold on by a length from the favourite at the line.
Jockey Sean Kirrane, who had only ridden out his apprentice claim a week earlier, had Live In The Dream out of the stalls smartly and he was a couple of lengths clear before they’d travelled a furlong. Highfield Princess was going well in vanguard of the chasing group.
The order didn’t really change throughout and try as she might Highfield Princess just couldn’t close the gap on Live In The Dream.
Trainer Adam West, based in Epsom in the south of England, was enjoying only his seventh winner of the year but he had belief in the horse, who’d finished a good third in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock earlier in the year. “This is a horse we’ve had so much fun with and so much faith in. He’s been with us since a yearling, what a journey. I never thought it was possible to win it.”
Connections had hesitated to send the gelding for a race at Del Mar in the United States earlier in the year but now have their eyes firmly set on a trip to the Breeders’ Cup as this victory at York in what was a ‘win and you’re in’ race for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint now qualifies the horse for an automatic entry in the $1m race.
