Frankel’s half-sister wins career debut, could target Royal Ascot next

Joyeuse, a half-sister to unbeaten champion Frankel as well as two other group stakes winners, impressed in her career debut Tuesday at Lingfield Racecourse in England, winning a maiden event for 2-year-old fillies by 3 1/4 lengths.

The Oasis Dream filly, who is out of the Danehill mare Kind, was ridden by jockey Tom Queally for trainer Henry Cecil and owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farm—the same connections as her famed older half-sibling. She covered six furlongs in 1:14.22 on ground rated good to soft.

"I was happy with the way she did it,” Queally told Racing Post. “The ground was on the slow side and better ground would bring out more in her. She was green in the preliminaries but she was very professional in the race and went about her business nicely. I'm sure better races lie ahead."

A potential next target for Joyeuse could be the Group 3 Albany Stakes at the famed Royal Ascot meeting next month.

"Any winning filly is nice, but that was great,” Juddmonte racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said. “With a filly like this you are always a bit apprehensive as the weight of expectation is so enormous. The great thing is she settled pretty nicely. She had a bit of a look when she came through but then went on to win the race quite comfortably.”

"She looked pretty comfortable at this trip and whether Henry would want to step her up to seven furlongs I don't know. We've talked about the Albany, but we'll have to see how she comes back from this."

Kind, a stakes winner herself, has now produced four winners from five foals to start.

Frankel finished his career unbeaten in 14, starts, including 10 Group 1 events, for earnings of $4,789,144. He received the Cartier Award as European Horse of the Year in 2011 and 2012. The Galileo horse entered stud this season at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud in Newmarket, England, where he attracted an outstanding first book of mares.

Kind is also the dam of Group 3 winners Bullet Train, by Sadler’s Wells, and Noble Mission, by Galileo; the latter added a victory in the Tapster Stakes to his résumé last Saturday at Goodwood.

Kind produced a full brother to Frankel and Noble Mission in February. Oasis Dream also stands at Banstead Manor for a 2013 fee of about $120,300 (80,000 pounds).