England: Porta Fortuna takes Falmouth; Mill Stream upsets July Cup

Mill Stream posted an 11-1 upset Saturday in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket, a day after Porta Fortuna came home an odds-on winner there in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

Mill Stream, a 3-year-old trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam, is little known to the casual American racing fan, but Porta Fortuna carries more currency on these shores, the 3-year-old filly having finished second last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Porta Fortuna has improved meaningfully as a 3-year-old, beginning her season with a second-place finish in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket before winning the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Royal Ascot in advance of her Falmouth score against some older fillies and mares.

Porta Fortuna, trained by Donnacha O’Brien, proved much the best in the Falmouth, racing just off the pace and coming home 3 3/4 lengths better than second-place finisher Jabaara, another 3-year-old. Porta Fortuna drew steadily clear through the final furlong despite racing with her head cocked to the right, though she definitely was not looking for the line. Ryan Moore took over as jockey Friday with regular rider Tom Marquand committed to a mount at York Racecourse. By Caravaggio out of Too Precious, by Holy Roman Emperor, Porta Fortuna has an American ownership group, and O’Brien said after a midsummer freshening she’d be aimed at Group 1 races like the Matron at Leopardstown and the Sun Chariot at Newmarket, all with an eye toward the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar.

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Mill Stream, a 4-year-old, won his first Group 1, Chapple-Hyam’s third, and jockey William Buick’s 100th. Coming steadily from the back half of the field down the outside part of the course, Mill Stream struck the front with a half-furlong left and beat an even longer shot, Swingalong, by a neck. Vandeek was a well beaten third as second choice, while favored Insherin never landed a blow checking in fifth.

* In France on Saturday, Sosie looked very much the part of a sharply improving 3-year-old winning the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp by two lengths. Illinois, who came from Ireland for trainer Aidan O’Brien, finished second while no match for Sosie, who’d been third last out in the French Derby. Sosie, a Wertheimer et Frere homebred by Sea the Stars, excelled in his first try at 1 1/2 miles and will be aimed by trainer Andre Fabre toward the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

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