Spiritual awakens to take the Coral Distaff at Sandown

John and Thady Gosden took home the Coral Distaff at Sandown, but it was with 25-1 outsider Spiritual rather than 9-4 favourite Regal Jubilee.

Second amongst useful company at York in May, the George Strawbridge-owned daughter of Invincible Spirit was bounced out the stalls and immediately sent to the front in the hands of Richard Kingscote.

She faced a strong challenge up the home straight as Regal Jubilee, Royal Ascot scorer Soprano and Ralph Beckett’s Indelible all took aim at the front-running filly.

However, she never backed down and responded with real enthusiasm to her rider’s urgings, beating off the opposition and coming home a length and a quarter ahead of Indelible.

Soprano settled for third, while Regal Jubilee was unplaced in fourth as her stablemate took home the spoils.

Kingscote said: “Her team have obviously done a lot of work to settle her and she has form on slow ground and it all worked out well on the day.

“She kept responding and it is very windy up the straight which may have stopped the others making too much ground on us. But as I say everything went really nicely for her and it was a good result.

“She’s obviously learning and is still lightly raced. She’s going the right way so there is no reason to think that she can’t come on for today.

“It’s very nice to ride decent horses for decent people and hopefully I will be lucky enough to get on another one.”

Thady Gosden added: “She won very well, she ran a nice race to be second at York last time out and obviously the stiff mile at Sandown suited her well.

“It’s good to make her a stakes winner. She’s a Listed winner now so we’ll step her up in class and see where we go.”