Next stop the Curragh for Venetian Sun

Venetian Sun is Curragh-bound after enhancing her already big reputation with a superb defeat of Gstaad in the Prix Morny at Deauville.

Trained by Karl Burke and owned by Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy, the Starman filly is unbeaten in four starts having followed a Carlisle debut with an Albany Stakes triumph at Royal Ascot.

She then won the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket to further prove herself a top-class prospect, earning a shot at Group One level against the colts at Deauville as a result.

There she took the scalp of Aidan O’Brien’s Coventry winner Gstaad by a short neck, giving rider Clifford Lee a first Group One triumph and rewarding the courage of connections in aiming high.

They believe she will be better still over seven furlongs, and with that in mind the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh on September 14 is next up, ahead of a winter break that will lead into her Classic season next year.

“Karl Burke has never disguised how much he thought of this filly, even before she ran and made her debut at Carlisle,” said Sean Graham, racing manager to Bloom.

“I actually travelled from London that day, three and a quarter hours on the train, because he was waxing lyrical about her work at home.

“She went and did it well enough without blowing us away with the performance, and when she went to Ascot you’d probably have struggled to fancy her based on that form.

“But her work between Carlisle and Ascot was just sensational, she was working with Lethal Levi and he couldn’t get away from her.

“Karl was working her with these five- and six-year-olds, proper Listed and Group sprinters, and they couldn’t get her off the bridle.

“The performance at Ascot was very, very good, the plan was then to give her a break and bring her back for the Lowther or an autumn campaign, but she only lost four kilos having travelled up to Ascot and back to Middleham on the box and then run in sweltering heat.

“Karl said the race hadn’t taken a thing out of her so that’s why we decided to go to Newmarket, and though on the day it didn’t look as though she won it that impressively, the second-placed horse of Ed Walker’s (Royal Fixation) has gone and won the Lowther since so the form stacks up.

“Our plan was just to go to the Moyglore because we think she’ll be better over seven furlongs, but Karl said the filly was in fantastic form at home and though it was a Group One over six furlongs against the colts, Ian and Tony are great sports people.

“We thought we’d have a crack and that she’d lose nothing in defeat if she was beaten by a very impressive winner.

“Like her other wins, the race wasn’t really run to suit but she wasn’t giving an inch and she still won.

“All being well we will go to the Moyglare for her next and probably final start of the year, then we’ll put her away and hopefully bring her back for the Guineas next year.”