Ireland: Thundering On heads to Pretty Polly off English Oaks score

For a winner of the recent Group 1 English Oaks, Thundering On will have an atypical early summer campaign.

Of the last 10 winners of the English Oaks, only one – Minding in 2016 – has had her next start in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes against older fillies and mares a few weeks later. Minding won seven Group 1 races in 2015 and 2016.

Thundering On won the English Oaks on June 5 and starts in Saturday’s $455,000 Pretty Polly Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at the Curragh. Trained in Ireland by Joseph O’Brien for Shapoor Mistry, Thundering On was the 5-1 winner of the English Oaks at 1 1/2 miles at Epsom Racecourse. As of Thursday, Thundering On was even money with European bookmakers for the Pretty Polly.

Thundering On is by Frankel and is out of Thundering Nights, the winner of the 2021 Pretty Polly for Mistry and O’Brien. Thundering Nights died of colic in early 2024.

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Thundering On has shown significant improvement in recent months in longer races. She was beaten in her first three starts at distances ranging from seven furlongs to a mile last year and earlier this season before her first win in the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Navan Racecourse on April 25.

The third choice of nine in the English Oaks, Thundering On closed from last to win by 3 3/4 lengths under jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, who has the mount in the Pretty Polly Stakes. O’Brien recently mentioned that Thundering On could start in the Group 1 Irish Oaks at 1 1/2 miles at the Curragh on July 18.

Thundering On is one of three 3-year-old fillies in the Pretty Polly Stakes, which drew a field of nine.

The leading older filly or mare in the lineup is Estrange, the winner of the Grade 2 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park last July who was later second in two Group 1 races – the Yorkshire Oaks at York last August and the British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakesin October. Trained in Britain by David O’Meara, Estrange won her lone start this year in the Group 3 Fillies’ Stakes at 1 3/8 miles at Carlisle Racecourse.

The Pretty Polly field lost a leading candidate earlier this week when the French filly Aventure was withdrawn from consideration. Aventure, a six-time group stakes winner, is expected to start in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at 1 1/2 miles in Paris on July 5.

The Pretty Polly Stakes has a post time of 10:55 a.m. Eastern.

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