Coedana collects in Princess Royal at Newmarket

Ed Bethell’s Coedana came out on top in a thrilling four-way finish to the Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket.

A Listed winner at Pontefract on her penultimate start, the four-year-old was then thrown in at the deep end in the Group One Grosser Dallmayr-Preis in Munich at the end of July and performed with plenty of credit in finishing sixth behind subsequent Irish Champion Stakes hero Hotazhell.

Back against her own sex at Group Three level on the Rowley Mile, Coedana was a 100-30 shot in the hands of Connor Beasley and charged home from the rear to hit the front in the final furlong and claim a half-length victory. The 7-4 favourite Inis Mor narrowly beat the enterprisingly ridden 40-1 shot Venetia to second.

James Bethell, representing his son, said: “She’s very good and I thought she ran a blinder in the Group One in Germany, but it’s a very tight track there and I think she enjoys these galloping courses.

“We were hopeful she would run a pretty big race and she’d had a nice break after Germany, which has done her the world of good.”

Coedana is 25-1 from 50-1 with Betfair for the Qatar Racing British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot on October 17.

“I think she’s done really well and I’m not sure if she goes to Champions Day or not – Ed will make that decision with the owners – but she wouldn’t look out of place there,” Bethell added.

“I thought she was going to win and then I thought she was going to get beat, but she fought on well.”

In the opening Betway British EBF Rosemary Stakes, William Haggas’ Alobayyah (100-30) supplemented her win at Royal Ascot earlier this year with a convincing length-and-a-half success to secure Listed honours under Tom Marquand.

Maureen Haggas said: “She probably prefers a straight track so you can just sit on her and let her do her own thing.

“She just wants to get on with it and do it her way. She’s won at Royal Ascot and has gone and got some black type so you can’t ask for much more. She’s not been easy and it’s been a real team effort to get her here but she’s done it.

“She has always been a nice filly and I’m not sure if she’ll be still here next year so if there is a suitable race on a straight track we could run again this year, but I think we really do have to stick to straight tracks, it is the key to her.”