Newmarket: Spatial, Sobetsu step up to stakes company for Fillies' Mile
Spatial and Sobetsu, maiden race winners at Newmarket Racecourse in recent months, will make their first starts in stakes amidst high expectations in Friday’s $680,744 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket.
Sobetsu, trained by Charlie Appleby, and Spatial, trained by Michael Stoute, were 5-2 and 10-3 with British bookmakers on Wednesday for the Fillies’ Mile, which drew a field of eight. Both were beaten in their first start, but rebounded to win maiden races.
Sobetsu won a maiden race at a mile by 10 lengths on Sept. 17. Spatial won a seven-furlong maiden race on Aug. 26.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien has two prominent runners – Hydrangea and Rhododendron, who were second and third in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland on Sept. 11. Rhododendron won the Group 2 Debutante Stakes at The Curragh on Aug. 21.
Rich Legacy is the most accomplished of the England-based fillies, having won the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last month. Trained by Ralph Beckett, Rich Legacy has won 2 of 3 starts.
The Fillies’ Mile is the last major stakes for 2-year-old fillies in England this year, and is considered an important gauge of the division going into the winter. There is a possibility the race could produce a starter for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.