Group 1 glory for Snow Lantern eight years after her dam was denied

The most regal of pedigrees meant that connections of Snow Lantern were excited about her prospects from the outset and the filly lived up to her Group 1 billing on a notable day for both her illustrious parents.

Harking back to the Falmouth Stakes of eight years ago, Snow Lantern was settling a score for her dam Sky Lantern, the Classic winner who suffered a stinging defeat when carried across the track by Elusive Kate and beaten just a neck.

Kept on to breed by the Keswick family for their Rockcliffe Stud, Sky Lantern had produced two other minor winning foals by Dubawi before her third and best to date, a daughter of Frankel who shares her familiar grey hue.

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On only her fourth start, Snow Lantern had been second in the same Coronation Stakes that her dam had landed with such elan in 2013.

In taking a fabulous renewal of the Tattersalls-sponsored Falmouth on Friday, with contenders fighting out the finish across Newmarket's July Course, Snow Lantern became Frankel's 51st worldwide Group winner, as well as his 17th at the highest level.

The Juddmonte stallion had brought up his half-century less than an hour earlier when the Queen's homebred Light Refrain emerged a convincing winner of the Group 3 William Hill Summer Stakes at York.

Sky Lantern, a now 11-year-old Red Clubs mare bred by Tally-Ho Stud, was bought for €75,000 by Ed Sackville for the Keswicks at Goffs Orby as a yearling. After an extraordinary career on the track her first foal, Gentile Bellini, made 2,000,000gns when bought in partnership by Coolmore.

She has subsequently bred a Galileo two-year-old colt, named First Emperor, and has two more colts, a yearling and a foal, by Kingman.

Trainer Richard Hannon, for whom Sky Lantern was a first real flagbearer after taking over from his father, reflected on the pair on Racing TV.

"She [Sky Lantern] was brilliant and this filly I've always thought is as good if not better," he said. "This filly has the pedigree, she's by Frankel out of a Classic winner and Sky Lantern was a freak, she wasn't supposed to be as good."

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