Winning run in Musidora Stakes extended for Stoute by Liber Nauticus

The filly outbattled Richard Fahey’s Romantic Settings and the well-regarded Woodland Aria, who clearly did not stay the trip, in the closing stages of a thrilling race, but the 4-6 shot will have to improve again to win the Epsom Oaks on May 31.

Liber Nauticus was having only her second career start following a debut success at Goodwood last September and her jockey Ryan Moore offered this upbeat assessment in the winner’s enclosure: “I was very happy with her because she doesn’t actually do a lot.”

Moore, who would later bring up a treble with later wins on Cousin Khee and then Lancelot Du Lac in the finale, added: “She only does enough, so I was very happy. Hopefully, she’ll get better as she gets older.”

The winner is owned by Ballymacoll Stud whose racing manager, Peter Reynolds, said afterwards: “She’s a bit of a baby and she’ll have learned a lot from today.

“Sir Michael will make a decision about Epsom. Some people might say that because she is big and strong she might be more suited to the Curragh (Irish Oaks) but we’ll let Michael make that decision. I don’t think we saw all her class today. Ryan said she was very nice but she’s a filly for the future.

“Islington won this race for us (2002) and was very fancied for us but everything fell apart in the Oaks. Then she came back here to win the Yorkshire Oaks, having won the Nassau, and was a Breeders’ Cup mare so she might be that type, rather than Epsom. You’d have to think she has serious ability and she’s done nothing wrong.”

Stoute, who has been suffering from ill-health, was represented by his partner Coral Pritchard-Gordon who said: “We’ll see what Michael feels but obviously the Oaks is in under consideration. That was only her second run and she idled in front so you’d have to be pleased with that.”

As for Romantic Settings, Malton-based Fahey said she will swerve the Oaks.

Another distinguished racing name rolling back the years is Stoute’s former stable jockey Kieren Fallon, who drove home Society Rock in the Duke of York Clipper Logistics Stakes.

After struggling to get his mount into the stalls, Fallon managed to get the notoriously slow starter away on a par with the rest of the field.

Fallon, who rides Greatwood in today’s Dante, said: “He was going to walk straight into the stalls. He was as good as gold but his shoulder hit the sidebar and spooked him. Other than that, he would have been fine.

“Things went wrong for me. Drawn 18 I couldn’t get too much cover and I got there too soon. I didn’t know if I had won. The other horse Lethal Force was bearing down on me.”

Next month’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot is the target for Society Rock, whose hesitant start in this race last June cost the James Fanshawe-trained horse any chance of beating Australian supermare Black Caviar. Connections had to settle for a fast-finishing fifth.

Henry Ponsonby and his syndicate members are entitled to get pretty excited about First Mohican after his win in the Infinity Tyres Handicap – the opening race of the Dante meeting.

Once a galloping companion of Sir Henry Cecil’s mighty Frankel, the chestnut has only seen the track five times in an injury-hit career.

“Henry rang me up one day and after he had worked with Frankel and said, ‘This is the best horse you will ever have’, which is unusual for him,” said Ponsonby.

“He only ran once at two, had a niggle, then fractured his knee at three. I should think he’ll go hurdling with Alan King in the autumn. He could be the next Istabraq.”