Staya swoops late for Dragon Stakes prize

George Scott’s Staya built on the promise of her Royal Ascot performance by coming from last to first to land the 50 Years Together Coral Dragon Stakes at Sandown.

A winner on her Yarmouth debut, the Havana Grey filly was then beaten less than two lengths into fifth place in the Queen Mary Stakes and was a 5-4 favourite for this Listed event on the strength of that form.

Given plenty of time to find her feet by Callum Shepherd, she was delivered with her challenge widest of all inside the last of five furlongs and knuckled down when needed to get the better of a brief tussle with Military Code by a head.

Scott said: “I’m really pleased with her and I thought Callum negated the draw (stall two) well and kept her out of trouble.

“I think you can probably upgrade her performance as she had to take back and back and back and come with one staying run.

“She hit the line very well and booked herself a step back up in grade and will maybe go another furlong next time as well.”

Having seen his exciting juvenile filly pick up some winning black type, the Newmarket handler has big-race plans for the rest of the campaign.

“To be honest I was never going to go five furlongs again after Ascot, but with her being a precocious, strong two-year-old filly I wanted to bank that stakes race with her,” he added.

“We’ll go for the Princess Margaret at Ascot next and in a dream world you’d be thinking Princess Margaret, the Lowther at York and then the Cheveley Park at Newmarket. That’s really what I’ve got in my mind for her, but obviously a lot can change along the line.

“She’ll be kept busy as she’s a very durable filly with a good mind, typical of the stallion, so she’ll have a busy campaign if she keeps giving us the right signs.”