In 2006, Red Evie rattled off seven straight wins, culminating with a victory in the Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Matron Stakes (Ire-I) in September. On Saturday at Newbury Race Course, Red Evie proved that victory wasn’t a fluke by adding the Juddmonte Lockinge Stakes (Eng-I) to her resume.
Speciosa, winner of the 2006 Stan James One Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) popped out the gate the quickest, and led the field of eight through the first half mile of the eight furlong contest. As she began to tire, last year’s Lockinge victress, Peeress, and French invader Passager, took up the challenge.
Passager, a 4-year-old son of Anabaa owned by Gary Tanaka, gained a narrow advantage with two furlongs left, but by then was under a stiff challenge from Ramonti and jockey Frankie Dettori.
Ramonti, winner of the Premio Vittorio di Capua (Ity-I) last year, was making his first start for Godolphin, who purchased the 5-year-old earlier this year.
Ramonti and Passager dueled into the final furlong, with Ramonti gaining a slight edge. Red Evie was making a determined run under Jamie Spencer and the duo split the top pair and just edged out Ramonti by a head for the victory. It was just another head back to Passager in third.
The final time for the mile run over the good to soft turf was 1:40.43.
Winning trainer Michael Bell said after the race, “She won a group 1 last year, and beat Peeress, and it’s unusual to get these fillies to win two group 1’s.” He continued, “There was a big temptation to retire her last year, but these good fillies don’t come around too often, so we kept her in training. We’ll have a lot of fun with her this season, and the Queen Anne (Eng-I) will be next for her.”
Red Evie is a 4-year-old bay filly by Intikhab out of Malafemmena, by Nordico. She is owned by Terry Neill.
