Chantilly ace Sky Majesty given lofty sprint targets

William Haggas’ Sky Majesty looks to be bursting with promise for next season after a smart success in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte at Chantilly.

The filly is a daughter of Blue Point out of Majestic Alexander, endowing her with a real speed pedigree, as her dam is the producer of four other black-type sprinters, including 2019 Ayr Gold Cup hero Angel Alexander and this year’s Beverley Bullet winner Democracy Dilemma.

Making her debut in a Newbury maiden in late August, the bay got off the mark right away and then stepped up in grade to contest the Group Three Firth of Clyde at Ayr the following month.

There she was a winner again, scoring ahead of Queen Mary third Maw Lam and subsequent Cornwallis runner-up Grande Marques in a field of 13.

Another upgrade in race calibre was then awaiting the filly at Chantilly, as she lined up for the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte on Saturday, a Group Two six-furlong sprint in which she was the mount of Christophe Soumillon.

On heavy ground, she kept her flawless record intact, defeating the favourite, Patrice Cottier’s Cheveley Park runner-up Daylight, by a length and a quarter, with the rest of the field fairly well-spaced behind them.

“She’s progressed with each run this year and she surprised us a bit when she won first time at Newbury,” said Sean Graham, racing manager to co-owner Tony Bloom.

“Not so much that she won, it was the way she did it. Coming into the race, William said he was happy with her and she was working well – but like all his fillies, she wasn’t going to be given a hard race first time out.

“She sat in fourth with a furlong to go and she picked up, I thought she was going to be third or fourth at best and she went and won.

“I think the horse she beat (Hold A Dream) went and won at Yarmouth and she went to Ayr, she was probably drawn on the wrong side of the track there but Callum Rodriguez gave her a brilliant ride to get her hidden and get a bit of cover.

“She got up on the line and I think she probably won with a bit more in hand than the winning distance suggests, we were then umming and ahing over whether that would do for the year but William said there was a race in Chantilly for her.

“We were very, very happy with her, she showed an awful lot of guts and great resilience.

“On figures, she wasn’t entitled to beat the favourite and yet she’s gone and done it by over a length and it was probably a deserved margin.

“She’s improved and we’ve talked over whether she will get further, but the dam never raced over five furlongs and most of her siblings haven’t either – I think she is really a five or six-furlong filly.”

Sky Majesty is likely to have run her last race this year, with connections hoping to aim high with her next season after the promise she has shown so far.

“I suppose, touch wood, the next step would be a Group One somewhere. Something like the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot next year would be the obvious target,” said Graham.

“William and Maureen have done a fantastic job with her so far and they’ll make all the decisions and find the right races for her, they do such a good job.”