Maids lands Coronation crown
Maids Causeway just got the better of Karen’s Caper in a thrilling finish to the Group One Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot at York today.
The Barry Hills-trained filly pulled up slightly lame after losing a shoe in the race, which she won by a short head.
Maids Causeway was sent off a 9-2 shot and was always in the front rank, taking it up three furlongs from home.
Karen’s Caper came to challenge a furlong and a half out and although she got her head in front, Maids Causeway showed immense courage to get back up on the line.
Mona Lisa set out to make the early pace for 7-2 favourite Damson, but Michael Hills also had Maids Causeway well away to take up a good position on the rails.
Turning for home she was swinging along nicely and Hills pushed on early in the straight.
Karen’s Caper took her time to be wound up under Jimmy Fortune, but when she hit top gear she put in a determined challenge.
At one point Karen’s Caper was just shading it, but Maids Causeway showed the kind of guts her sire, ‘Iron Horse’ Giant’s Causeway, was famous for to get back on top in the shadow of the post.
Mona Lisa plugged on for third under Jamie Spencer, but she was three and a half lengths further adrift.
Hills senior told BBC Sport: “She is very, very tough and tries very, very hard.
“I think she will stay further eventually, and she is a battler.
“She had a good run through the race, stuck her neck out all the way up the straight and just hung on.
“She is with the vets, but she’ll be going home this evening with a poultice on her foot and touch wood she will be fine in two or three days.”
Hills junior added: “I thought she went lame coming to the line so I got off her as quick as I could, but thank God she has only pulled a shoe off.
“She is a man and is just like her father. She is unreal and I have been in some close finishes with her.
“She (Karen’s Caper) was getting the better of me, so I had to steady to go for one last surge.
“I didn’t think I could time it like that – I asked for that surge and she just came up.”
John Gosden, the trainer of Karen’s Caper, was philosophical in defeat.
His filly Twyla Tharp lost out in an exciting finish to the Ribblesdale Stakes yesterday, and the Manton handler said: “Two short heads two days running - it’s a bit tough at Royal Ascot, isn’t it?.
“But she has run a lovely race and I’m delighted with her.
“We will see where we go from here, but that’s the last of the three-year-old fillies-only jobs. She’s in the Falmouth (at Newmarket on July 5) and I think that’s where she might go.”
Spencer, riding for Aidan O’Brien for the first time since his split from the Ballydoyle operation, said of Mona Lisa: “It was a big run. She was a lovely filly last year and she has shown her form from last year today. She should have a good end to the year.”
Damson’s trainer David Wachman was at a loss to explain his filly’s poor performance.
He said: “She didn’t seem to fire – no reasons and no excuses.
“Her work at home was good, it just didn’t happen today.”
