Laurens lands first Group One success for PJ McDonald at Newmarket’s Dubai Future Champions Festival

The Karl Burke-trained winner held on by a nose to get the verdict in a photo finish from September, giving jockey PJ McDonald a first Group One win and denying Aidan O’Brien a 24th Group 1 success of the year but also a fourth straight Fillies’ Mile success.

Magic Lily was not far away in third, ahead of the O’Brien-trained Magical, who was sent off favourite after stablemate Happily was declared a non-runner.

Having won the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last month, Laurens relished the step up to the highest level and looked to have the one mile encounter – one of the richest Group 1 two-year-old races in Europe – sew up. September, ridden by Seamie Heffernan, was not going to let the winner succeed without a fight and put in a determined late challenge. It was hard to separate the pair at the line and it took a photo to decide the outcome with Laurens edging matters, Magic Lily coming in only three-quarters of a length further back from the leading pair.

Runners-up spot for O’Brien on this occasion will only delay the inevitable procession towards a world record top-level haul of winners for a calendar year. He stands on 23 Group One wins in 2017, two short of the record set by Bobby Frankel.

The two-day Dubai Future Champions Festival combines world class two-year-old racing with amazing entertainment making it a high point of the season at Newmarket Racecourses. Friday is Newmarket’s annual Autumn Ladies Day with four Group races, the first of which set the tone for those that followed as the Declan Carroll-trained Abel Handy claimed the Cornwallis Stakes in a close finish.
With jockey James Doyle at the helm, the winner took the day’s opener by a neck from Sound And Silence in second and Mokaatil in third.

The Group 3 Fillies Stakes followed and saw the relative outsider Altyn Orda win for trainer Roger Varian by the same close margin.
Jockey Andrea Atzeni was at the reins as the winner came in by a neck from Gavota in second and I Can Fly in third, albeit only a length’s distance behind.

The Group 2 Challenge Stakes was a different proposition however as The Henry Candy-trained Limato made easy work of the other 10 runners in the field. With jockey Harry Bentley controlling proceedings, the winner came in three and a half lengths in front of Massaat in second and Gordon Lord Byron in third.

Trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick combined to good effect once again as First Nation won the Old Rowley Cup Heritage Handicap. A strong field of 16 runners made it an interesting contest which the winner took by three-quarters of a length from Eynhallow in second and Duke of Bronte a neck’s distance back in third.

It is rare to see a big meeting go without a winner for jockey Ryan Moore and typically he was in the winner’s enclosure after Veracious came in an easy winner of the Maiden Fillies’ Stakes. Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Moore guided his charge to a four length victory from joint-favourite Winter Lightning in second and Final Treat in third.

The Dubai Future Champions Festival continues on Saturday at Newmarket where the Group 1 feature race is the Darley Dewhurst Stakes, Britain’s, and arguably Europe’s, most prestigious race for juvenile horses. Another highlight will be the Betfred Cesarewitch Heritage Handicap, the second leg of the historic Autumn Double and known among racegoers as‘the Grand National of the Flat’.