HOMEBRED LIGHTENING STRIKES IN GR.3
Lightening Quick, the 3-year-old daughter of Gr. 1 winner Lightening Pearl, won the Gr. 3 Athasi Stakes at Naas on Monday.
With Colin Keane back in the saddle, Lightening Quick, who'd made a winning debut at Leopardstown last year before a below-par run in the Gr. 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket, showed a fantastic attitude to win the Gr. 3 Coolmore Mastercraftsman Irish European Breeders' Fund Athasi Stakes.
Lightening Quick was prominent in the chasing group behind clear leader Xenobia for most of the way, before overtaking the eventual runner-up late on. Lightening Quick crossed the line with three quarters of a length to spare.
Winning trainer Ger Lyons said after the race: "It's great to win that with a Frankel filly out of a Group 1-winning mare. That's what it's all about. She is in the Irish Guineas but on that run Colin said she wouldn't be going any further."
Ger, of course, also trained Marju mare Lightening Pearl to win the 2011 Gr. 1 Cheveley Park Stakes under Johnny Murtagh, now a Qatar Racing trainer himself. She carried the Pearl Bloodstock colours and was Sheikh Fahad's first Gr. 1 winner. She was bred by Castlemartin Stud and Skymarc Farm, and purchased by David Redvers for €125,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.
Lightening Quick is the mare's second foal after Lightening Fast (also by Frankel), who is BHA-rated 96. Lightening Quick's success brings Frankel's tally of Group winners up to 17.
All Lightening Quick's three starts so far have come over seven furlongs. Lightening Pearl won over seven before dropping back to six furlongs, and she didn't stay the mile in the 1,000 Guineas, for all her pedigree suggested she might (out of a mile winner, from the family of St Leger/Gold Cup winner Classic Cliche). Lightening Pearl's full brother Satono Crown has since won the Hong Kong Vase.
It's safe to say Lightening Quick will one day be a very valuable addition to the Qatar Racing broodmare band.
