Spirited Gesture looks a top prospect for the Gosdens

John and Thady Gosden unleashed a potential star at Newmarket where Spirited Gesture upheld family honour with an impressive winning debut.

The regally-bred Juddmonte-owned daughter of Kingman is a sister to Coventry Stakes-winner Calyx and was sent off 6-4 in the hands of Robert Havlin for the Lodge At The National Stud EBF Fillies’ Novice Stakes, a race the Clarehaven team won with subsequent Fillies’ Mile scorer Commissioning in 2022.

Charlie Appleby’s 1000 Guineas winner Desert Flower and David Menuisier’s French and Irish Oaks-placed Inis Mor are the most recent two winners of this and hopes are high for a similarly bright future for Spirited Gesture.

John Gosden said: “We know the family and I think Rab has ridden all of them on their debuts. She has shown good ability on the gallops at home and has never been off the bridle.

“She has similar characteristics to her big brother but she’s not quite the outlandish thug he was and his favourite trick was to come into our trotting ring and see how many white plastic rails he could kick out every morning.

“It was her first time on grass for two months and we’re lucky we have the synthetic all-weather because she hasn’t had a racecourse gallop or anything like that.

“She worked nicely with the filly who was third in the Goodwood maiden on Thursday (Beguiled) and they were sort of upsides on the bridle with maybe the edge to this filly.

“She’s learned a lot and you would have preferred if she was in behind and came through but it didn’t work that way.

“She has shown a lot of potential class at home, she’s a lively character, but we are absolutely thrilled with that performance and it’s a great start to her career.”

It may not be a long wait to see Spirited Gesture in action again with Gosden keen to continue her education on the racecourse while she appears to be thriving.

He added: “I think she has plenty of athleticism and I hope she is a filly you could look at one of the nice seven furlong races coming up, or maybe even the May Hill (Stakes) at Doncaster over the mile.

“I think we’ll stay at seven furlongs again and see where we are. Once you start thinking of putting a horse away for next year horses then have a habit of kicking a wall in a box or something like that, so to that extent, while she is in good order we should look to run her in something in about three weeks.

“She might prefer if we got some rain and her sire Kingman could go on anything but was probably at his best on the easy side of good. If we got some rain I think she would love it.”

Havana Sprite made it three wins on the bounce when continuing her love affair with the July course in the British Stallion Studs EBF Fillies’ Nursery Handicap.

James Tate’s likeable youngster has proved ultra-professional since opening her account Bath on her third outing, dead-heating for first in the Listed Empress Stakes in June and now picking up another nice prize.

Having hit the front travelling strongly for Jack Mitchell, the 4-1 shot was good value for her half-length success and Tate is now relishing an outing on the Knavesmire next month either in another nursery or stepping up in grade for the Group Two Sky Bet Lowther Stakes.

Tate said: “She’s becoming a very good professional, she doesn’t waste any energy in the prelims, is very professional during the race, hit the front soon enough but did it comfortably didn’t she.

“She enjoys quick ground and six furlongs. Obviously she enjoys it here but we’re going to find somewhere else to go next because this course changes shortly.

“There’s a couple of possible options at York. She would have the choice between the £100,000 nursery there or the Lowther and also later on there is races like the Group Three Firth Of Clyde Stakes at Ayr which is a nice quick six furlongs.

“She’s a maiden winner, a Listed winner and now a £40,000 nursery winner. She’s great fun and my first horse for the owners Valmont and a dream.”