Emily Upjohn© Photo Healy Racing
Connections will look to the Yorkshire Oaks with Emily Upjohn after the Qatar Nassau Stakes favourite could only finish a well-beaten sixth at Goodwood.
Supplemented into the 10-furlong contest at a cost of £40,000 last Friday, conditions appeared ideal for John and Thady Gosden’s dual Group One winner to build on her narrow second to Bluestocking in the Pretty Polly Stakes in late June.
However, with a tough draw in stall 10 to overcome and pitched wide in the early stages of the contest, the mount of Kieran Shoemark could never make her presence felt as Opera Singer dictated proceedings and surged to a brilliant victory.
“We were drawn in stall 10 which is never ideal here. She was a touch slowly away but travelled well in the early part of the race,” said Thady Gosden.
“Coming down the hill she did not pick up how you would have expected her to do. She seems fine afterwards.
“Naturally, when you start favourite, let alone in a Group One, if they don’t quite run how you expect them to it’s disappointing.
“She is in good condition afterwards and she did not take long to cool down. We move on. The mile and a half Yorkshire Oaks on a very fair track is a race which would suit her well.”
It was left to Andrew Balding’s See The Fire to chase home the Aidan O’Brien-trained scorer, with the Jeff Smith-owned daughter of Sea The Stars building on her top-level exposure in both the Coronation Stakes and Coral-Eclipse.
Balding’s Bellum Justum had also finished a close second to O’Brien’s Jan Brueghel in the Gordon Stakes in the race prior.
Balding said: “She is a very good filly and I am sure her turn will come. I am proud of the effort. It is just annoying being beaten two races in a row – Aidan can go home.”
Her jockey Oisin Murphy added: “I thought it was a pace collapse from two furlongs out and I thought I’d pick up Ryan, but, as Ryan taught me in the last race, he takes a bit of passing.”
Meanwhile, Patrice Cottier was taking the positives from the performance of his Prix de Diane winner Sparkling Plenty in third.
Sporting the Al Shaqab silks of the meeting’s sponsor, the daughter of Kingman kept on strongly in the closing stages to be beaten a length in the hands of Cristian Demuro.
‘She just got a little unbalanced but I am pleased with the run,” said Cottier.
“It was always the plan to ride her at the back because we wanted her to relax. She finished really well. She might go for the Prix Vermeille and then we shall see.”
