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Tattersalls Musidora Stakes - Group 3
| Distance: 1 mile 2 furlongs |
Prize Money: £65,000 |
| Race Type: Group 3 |
Age: 3f |
| Rating: |
Stalls: |
| Channel 4 |
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The Tattersalls Musidora Stakes is a Pattern race and so is at the pinnacle of racing’s pyramid. Such contests are divided into four categories: Listed, Group 3 (such as this race), Group 2 and Group 1. To establish a competitive and comparative frame for the race it is open to three-year-old fillies only and each is set to carry the weight of 8st 12lb.
Musidora was a Yorkshire-trained filly who landed a famous Classic double – and the race named after her has become a premier trial for the Epsom Oaks. She was saddled by Malton maestro Captain Charles Elsey to win the 1,000 Guineas in the spring of 1949 under Australian jockey Edgar Britt who also steered her to victory in the Oaks at Epsom just a few weeks later when she beat French challenger Coronation V, who was to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe later that year. Elsey was the only Northern trainer to win the trainer’s championship in the last 100 years when he sent out 83 winners in 1956 with earnings of £61,621 (the equivalent of well over £1m today).
In more recent times another master trainer – Henry Cecil – really put his stamp on the race with eight winners. The latest was Passage of Time in 2007 with the victory signalling the start of a resurgence for Cecil’s Newmarket yard. With the trainer suffering a serious illness, the famous Warren Place stable had not been as productive, so much so that Cecil failed to saddle even one winner on the Knavesmire in the seasons 2004 to 2006 with no Group race wins anywhere in the country either during that period, but Passage of Time changed all that. The filly sprang to prominence when taking the Group One Grand Criterium at Saint-Cloud in the autumn of her juvenile campaign where she beat Soldier of Fortune who won the Irish Derby the following summer. She came to the Knavesmire that year under the weather with a throat abscess, but landed the spoils in good style under Richard Hughes and was subsequently sent off favourite for the Oaks. Her interrupted preparation cannot have helped and she weakened in the home straight to finish 8th behind stable companion Light Shift; a result which had Cecil’s legion of fans literally cheering and singing around the Epsom winners enclosure as a tearful maestro mounted the winners’ podium. After a short holiday, Passage of Time was back to full health and finished third in the Breeders Cup Mare and Filly race in extreme conditions at Monmouth Park
Cecil’s first Tattersalls Musidora success came with Fatah Flare in Sheikh Mohammed’s colours in 1985 and he and stable jockey Steve Cauthen completed a hat-trick with Indian Skimmer, Diminuendo and Snow Bride between 1987 and 1989.
Both Diminuendo and Snow Bride went on to land the Epsom Oaks – although the latter got the prize on the controversial disqualification of the Aga Khan’s filly Aliysa – while Indian Skimmer won the French Oaks. Further victories were added with All At Sea (1992), Magnificent Style (1997) and Reams of Verse in 1998, but
another hat-trick bid was scuppered the following year when odds-on favourite Midnight Line was beaten by Frankie Dettori on the Godolphin filly Bahr. The master of Warren Place had to wait a whole decade before Passage of Time got him back on track.
Lester Piggott won the first running of the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes on Ambergris in 1961, but it was nearly 20 years before Bireme – trained by Dick Hern and ridden by Willie Carson - became the first filly to complete the York – Epsom double.
Sir Michael Stoute has seven victories to his credit, including Islington who won the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes in 2002, before disappointing on soft ground at Epsom. She bounced back to win the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and the Darley Yorkshire Oaks back on Knavesmire before finishing fifth in the Arc in Paris. She was then placed in the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf event and returned to America to take that particular prize the following autumn just a few weeks after recording back-to-back victories in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks.
The Epsom Classic isn’t the only target for fillies stepping out after winning or running well at York. Punctilious scored here for Godolphin in 2004 and was third at Epsom before winning the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot. She justified the decision to keep her in training the following year by taking the Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Last year’s winner, Lush Lashes trained by Jim Bolger, followed a similar path and was fifth at Epsom before winning the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and going on to win the Darley Yorkshire Oaks later in the season.
With a history of producing fillies to watch over the season this race never fails to be an event to savour.
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1 |
Aviate |
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8 |
12 |
(8) |
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Jockey: Eddie Ahern |
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2 |
Bikini Babe (IRE) |
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8 |
12 |
(7) |
| |
Jockey: Joe Fanning |
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3 |
Cabaret (IRE) |
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8 |
12 |
(4) |
| |
Jockey: Johnny Murtagh |
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4 |
Cracking Lass (IRE) |
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8 |
12 |
(2) |
| |
Jockey: Paul Hanagan |
| |
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5 |
Eleanora Duse (IRE) |
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8 |
12 |
(5) |
| |
Jockey: Ryan Moore |
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6 |
Gold Bubbles (USA) |
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8 |
12 |
(6) |
| |
Jockey: K. J. Manning |
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|
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7 |
Pink Symphony |
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8 |
12 |
(3) |
| |
Jockey: Jamie Spencer |
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8 |
Red Fantasy (IRE) |
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8 |
12 |
(1) |
| |
Jockey: Michael Hills |
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