Spirit's just desserts
JUSTICE took its time for Fleeting Spirit but her victory in the Darley July Cup was all the sweeter for the delay.
Nothing went right for Jeremy Noseda’s filly in the second half of last season – her stall didn’t open in the Abbaye, she banged her head and spent the re-run playing catch up.
At Royal Ascot this year it was head-banging time again – against the seemingly irresistible force of Australia’s Scenic Blast in the King’s Stand. Yesterday, Fleeting Spirit was not for catching though she had to survive a stewards’ enquiry. Justice was done when she kept the £250,000 prize.
“They dawdled early,” said Tom Queally, “and she went left and right as I changed whip hand. But there was no danger.” Queally booted home Art Connoisseur at Royal Ascot; this time the Golden Jubilee winner made no impact.
Fleeting Spirit’s trainer Noseda said: “This wasn’t the plan but she improved so much after Ascot I thought if (the real) Scenic Blast doesn’t turn up I wanted to be around.”
The logic proved prophetic – the Australian did not fire and the nearest the foreigners got was J J The Jet Plane’s third place.