Blue Bolt Strikes, Defeats Precise in Falmouth Stakes

Blue Bolt (IRE) landed a first top-level success in the Falmouth Stakes (G1) July 10 when downing the favorite Precise (IRE) at Newmarket. The 4-year-old Blue Point (IRE) filly won the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (G2) during the Royal Ascot meet last month and built on that effort with a polished performance on the July course, where she was always positioned prominently by Colin Keane and stretched 2 lengths clear of Precise in the mile turf race. Precise, who had won the Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) and the Coronation Stakes (G1) this season, was settled further back under Ryan Moore after getting bumped a bit at the start, as her pacemaker Venosa set the fractions. Although she improved in between horses, she never looked like a winner and ultimately had to settle for second. Balantina (IRE) finished third. Barry Mahon, racing manager for owners Juddmonte, told RacingTV: "Going into the race we thought the favorite would be hard to beat; she'd looked exceptional all year, so to give a filly like that nine pounds was going to be tough. "This filly showed in the autumn when she chased home Fallen Angel that she was a group 1 filly and we purposely started the season slow so as not to have a penalty for Royal Ascot. The second half of the season was where it was all going to be with her and it's nice to see her make the jump into group 1. "She's like a colt to look at her in the ring; she's a big, powerful filly. She didn't run at 2, she had a couple of little niggles, but she's got a lot stronger from 3 to 4. She's impressive." It was a third consecutive win of the season for the Andrew Balding-trained Blue Bolt, who landed a listed race at Goodwood on her seasonal reappearance. She holds entries in the Nassau Stakes (G1) at Goodwood, the Celebration Mile Stakes (G2) at Goodwood as well, and the Matron Stakes (G1) at Leopardstown in Ireland. On where her next start would likely be, Mahon said: "We'll talk to the owners and see. We have the Prix Rothschild and the Matron Stakes and they'd be the two obvious races. We'll work back from something like the Breeders' Cup. She's won her group 1 now so we can throw a few darts and see if we can get a second one." The race provided another major success for Keane in his role as the No. 1 rider for Juddmonte. His last came aboard Blue Bolt's stablemate Kalpana (GB) in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1) in October.