True Love Takes Queen Mary; American Lennilu Third
True Love gave Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore a second 2-year-old winner of the week at Royal Ascot with an authoritative performance in the June 18 Queen Mary Stakes (G2).
Second to subsequent Coventry Stakes (G2) winner Gstaad on her previous outing, True Love asserted in the closing stages, having been taken off her feet in the opening couple of furlongs.
However, as the race reached its closing stage, True Love began to pull herself back into the race and came to the fore at the furlong pole. At that point, she was comfortably holding her rivals all the way to the line of the five-furlong race. Ryan Moore rode the winner for Coolmore-affiliated owners Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier.
“She was second to a good filly first time and then our own colt beat her last time,” O’Brien said. “Ryan gave her a lovely ride, and Michael (Tabor) always loved her. It’s marvelous. She’s like a 4-year-old, really. She’s a big, mature, strong filly and something to look forward to.”
“She’s a tall, scopey girl. She’ll be better suited when she goes six (furlongs),” added Moore: “She looked a bit different to the others at the start. She’s a No Nay Never, and they’re usually big, strong, powerful, fast two-year-olds. The form was there.”
Tabor felt she stood out among the other fillies in the race.
“We were pretty confident today,” he said. “Aidan always said she was very fast, but in fact she probably wants a little further. The great thing about it is that the mother is in foal to City Of Troy, and the sister to Wootton Bassett.”
American participant Lennilu ran well in defeat, finishing third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths under Luis Saez. She raced within a few lengths of the pace and offered a bid in the center of the course. The gray/or roan filly fell short of longshot Flowerhead in second.
The Queen Mary was marred by the Richard Hannon-trained Harry’s Girl pulling up with a fatal injury.
The Patrick Biancone-trained Lennilu, a Florida-bred daughter of Leinster , lost for the first time. She scored two initial victories in the United States, the first at Keeneland in April and a second victory in May in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream Park for owners Amy and Caitlin Dunne, Brenda Miley, Jean Wilkinson, Hoffman Family Racing, Tranquility Lake Farms, and Maury and Christopher Harrington.
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