Saturday:
Keeping things simple, Lam Yai (ex One Spirit) cut out her own running in the Listed Doncaster Stakes over 6f to deliver a first Stakes winner in this hemisphere for Lucky Vega. It was a remarkable 60th individual two-year-old race won by her trainer Karl Burke, who is enjoying a scintillating season with his juveniles.
Drawn in stall two, Lam Yai was allowed to take up the running by jockey Shane Gray, though she was pestered by Boston Dan (Ardad). With her rivals coming under pressure past the halfway stage, she was briefly threatened on both sides but was well on top entering the final furlong to win by a length and a half. Figjam (Dandy Man), who is her trainer Katie Scott’s only two-year-old, belied the odds to take second, just edging it by a neck in front of Spanish Waltz (Lope Y Fernandez). Gray said post-race: “She is very hardy. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re riding one of Karl’s [Burke], they’re so tough and in such great form.”
Sporting the colours of Christopher Richard Hirst, the winner has been kept fairly busy throughout the summer, getting off the mark at the second attempt at Carlisle in June over 5f. She was highly-tried thereafter, finishing fourth in the Listed Marwell Stakes, third in the Listed Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy Stakes and second in the Gr.3 Firth of Clyde Stakes, going one better once again for this breakthrough Stakes success.
Bred by the One Spirit Syndicate, she was a €135,000 purchase by Kilbride Equine from Book 1 of the Goffs Orby Sale. She is a half-sister to the Gr.3 Grand Prix de Vichy winner One For Bobby (Frankel) and the dam of the Listed Marwell Stakes winner Miss Lamai (Mehmas). They are out of the Listed Owenstown Stud Stakes winner One Spirit (Invincible Spirit), a daughter of a winning half-sister to the dual Gr.1-winning sprinter and sire Diktat (Warning).
Sunday:
In the ownership of Millennium Stud, Only Luck (Lucky Vega), trained by the Polish-based Krzysztof Ziemianski, held on to win Hanover’s 1400m Listed Gestüt Wittekindshof Youngster Fillies Cup for two-year-olds by a neck.
Having raced just in mid-division towards the inside rail, the victrix, already a multiple winner in Poland, was ridden along just after entering the home straight and saw off the challenge of Fast Angel (Anodin), with French raider Burguesinha (Mehmas) finishing nine lengths further back in third.
Bred by the Irish National Stud, the winner was knocked down to JRSA for €55,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale, before fetching €50,000 the following year at Book 1 of the same sales house’s Orby Sale. A half-sister to two winners by Invincible Spirit, she is out of the winning Kitten’s Joy mare Love Street.
Written for European Bloodstock News
