Windlord edges Gala glory in tight Sandown finish

Having acted as a pacemaker for the brilliant Field Of Gold on his previous two starts, Windlord made the most of having his sights lowered with a hard-fought victory in the Davies Insurance Solutions Gala Stakes at Sandown.

A close second in the Sandown Classic Trial in the spring, the Dubawi colt subsequently gave his fellow Juddmonte-owned colt something to aim at in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, ultimately finishing well beaten on both occasions.

Andrew Balding’s charge was a 6-4 favourite dropping down to Listed class and while the front-running Caviar Heights proved a tough nut to crack on his first start since joining William Haggas, Windlord got the better of a final furlong tussle by a nose in the hands of Colin Keane.

Balding said: “I know Caviar Heights very well because I bought him as a yearling and trained him as a two-year-old and he’s very tough so I wasn’t convinced we were going to get past him.

“He showed real desire and he’s previously been asked to do something (pace-making) that wasn’t ideal for him so it’s nice for him to win a race in his own right.”

Balding, Keane and Juddmonte were completing a double on the card following Kassaya’s comeback victory in the preceding Battaash Handicap

A 5-2 market leader on her first appearance since finishing down the field as favourite for the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot last summer, the half-sister to 2000 Guineas hero Chaldean was good value for the winning margin of three-quarters of a length.

“We thought the world of her last year, she was favourite for the Queen Mary and got no run and then picked up an injury after that and it’s just taken an age to get her back to the sort of form where we were happy to run her,” Balding added.

“I think she’ll come on a bundle for that, it was really encouraging and exciting for the future.”

Balding then teamed up with William Buick to make it three winners on the day via Coltrane (5-2) in the Coral Marathon.

The eight-year-old won the Listed contest back in 2022 and had to dig deep for a repeat, fending off the late challenge of Al Nayyir by a short head, with just half a length back to Real Dream in third.

Balding said: “That was thoroughly well deserved. He’s been a bit of a star and that has taken his earnings over £1 million.

“He has been the horse of a lifetime really. He loves it here and has loved his racing this year. He was a little but inconsistent last season but has been in great form this year.

“He’s not in at Goodwood and I think we will probably wait and look at Doncaster with him now and then his swansong will either be at Ascot or in the Cadran.”