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Falmouth Stakes heroine Nazeef the latest star for Invincible Spirit
Newmarket Group 1 winner is a homebred for Shadwell
Nazeef provided a fine advertisement for Irish National Stud stalwart Invincible Spirit on Friday as she won her sixth race in a row by digging deep to repel Billesdon Brook and Terebellum in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket.
Shadwell's homebred four-year-old filly has been rising rapidly through the ranks since breaking her maiden at Newmarket for John Gosden last June.
View full result and watch race replay
She went on to win a Chelmsford novice stakes and Newmarket handicap at three, and has taken the Listed Snowdrop Fillies' Stakes at Kempton and Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot this season.
Jockey Jim Crowley told ITV Racing after delivering Nazeef to her latest success: “She's absolutely tough as nails and has done nothing but improve with every run. She's a real looker, gorgeous, and she just really wants to win.”
Nazeef becomes the 19th top-level winner for Invincible Spirit, the Haydock Sprint Cup-winning son of Green Desert and Prix de Diane heroine Rafha who served his 18th book of mares at the Irish National Stud at a fee of €100,000 this year.
The influential sire has excelled as a source of top-class sprinters and milers, as shown by the likes of Charm Spirit, Fleeting Spirit, Kingman, Magna Grecia, Mayson, Moonlight Cloud and Profitable.
His latest star Nazeef is the third foal out of the Dubawi mare Handassa, a winner of the Listed Garnet Stakes over a mile at Naas at three.
The dam, a 100,000gns purchase by Shadwell as a yearling at Tattersalls, is a half-sister to Group/Graded winners Desert Stone and Euginio out of Starstone, an unraced Diktat half-sister to Group 1-winning sprinters Pastoral Pursuits and Goodricke.
Nazeef has brought quite the turnaround in fortunes for Handassa as a broodmare.
Her first foal, the Oasis Dream six-year-old mare Butoolat, was winless in 12 starts and earned a best Racing Post Rating of 65, while her fourth foal, the three-year-old Muhaarar colt Musahaba, was beaten 26 lengths on his debut for Kevin Prendergast last month – although that was in the Curragh maiden won by subsequent Derby hero Serpentine.
Handassa also has a Frankel two-year-old colt but no yearling produce.
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