The first son of champion sire Kingman to go to stud, Calyx (GB) shuttled to Australia for Coolmore for two seasons and is on the board with his first stakes-winner with the Group II Duchess of Cambridge Stakes (6f) at Newmarket taken out by Persian Dreamer.
Trained by Dominic Ffrench Davis and ridden by Kevin Stott, Persian Dreamer won her debut at Newmarket in April and then finished fourth in a couple of stakes races at her next two starts.
She scored a dominant length and three-quarter win in the Amo Racing colours over the race favourite Star of Mystery, a Godolphin owned filly by Kodiac.
“It's a relief to get there at last. She's a smashing filly and she's done nothing wrong all year really, but she needs to get her toe into the ground. We were praying for the rain today and it has come. I was saying before the race that I didn't wear a jacket in the hope it would rain,” said Dominic Ffrench Davis, who was celebrating his first stakes win as a trainer.
“She was the last horse off the bridle at Ascot and she just doesn't let herself down when the ground is as fast as that. It was proper fast ground, but there was no jar and she's been able to come here not that long afterwards and run a top race. She's a big, strong filly and that's probably why she doesn't go on the fast ground, but I think she's a lovely filly going forward. When she won on the Rowley Mile I thought she could make up into a [G1 1000] Guineas horse and she gives you that sort of impression.”
A €145,000 Goffs Orby purchase for Amo Racing/Robson Aguiar, Persian Dreamer is a half-sister to Group II placed Queen Olly and is the best of three winners from placed Galileo mare Surprisingly, a sibling to stakes-winners Tiger Moth and Coach House from Group III winner Lesson in Humility.
Calyx has had six first crop winners in the Northern Hemisphere from 23 starters with his first Australian offspring to race here next season.
A brilliant Group II winning juvenile, Calyx has had yearlings sell for up to $230,000 in Australia this year with Mulcaster Bloodstock/Chris Waller Racing Pty Ltd securing his highest priced youngster, a colt from Without Saying at Magic Millions.
