Barry Mahon (centre) © Photo Healy Racing
Connections of Zilfee are in no rush to map out the future after the half-sister to superstar mare Enable made a winning debut at Kempton.
Like her dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winning sibling, the daughter of Sea The Stars is owned by Juddmonte and trained by John and Thady Gosden at their Clarehaven base.
Unraced at two, she was sent off 7-1 in the hands of Kieran Shoemark for what looked a warm maiden event at the Sunbury trac, showing a great tenacity and will to win in the closing stages, fighting back and defying greenness once headed to strike bravely by a short head.
The Zilfee team were understandably delighted with the positive opening showing and despite wanting to let the dust settle some more before confirming the three-year-old’s next move, are hopeful there could be a bright future ahead.
“It was a lovely start and she has always been a good looking filly,” said Barry Mahon, European racing manager for the owners.
“She was just a little on the weak side last year and just took a while to come right this year. In fairness to John and Thady they were patient and waited until they were happy with her.
“She did it well at Kempton, I thought she showed greenness when she hit the front and she fought back tenaciously when headed inside the final furlong. When she got headed I thought at least she will be a nice second, but to rally back there was a good performance.”
He went on: “You would be very happy with that and you would like to think she will improve from that and could be a nice filly. The second is well regarded and it could have been a nice race so hopefully she will progress further.
“I haven’t really gone through plans yet with John and Thady and looking at the programme book there is nothing really jumping out straight away.
“Whether they will take in another novice or not I’m not 100 per cent sure and we will just wait till after Ascot to see how she has come out of this race and then make a plan once things settle down.
“You would like to get her out on grass and give her a bit more experience and it is always hard to jump into something too fancy on her second start, so hopefully we find something suitable and build up slowly.”
