'We’ve got a lot of confidence in the filly' - Australian sprinting star Coolangatta set for Royal Ascot

Coolangatta will attempt to emulate Nature Strip by landing the King’s Stand Stakes for Australia at Royal Ascot in June, connections have revealed.

Nature Strip became the fifth Australian-trained horse this century to win the Group 1 sprint at the royal meeting when surging clear to win by four and a half lengths last year. Choisir (2003), Takeover Target (2006), Miss Andretti (2007) and Scenic Blast (2009) have also claimed the race in the last two decades for trainers based in Australia. 

Jamie Kah steered three-year-old filly Coolangatta to success in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes at Flemington last month, her second Group 1 victory following last September's win in the Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley. Last year's King's Stand winner Nature Strip was sixth behind her at Flemington.

Coolangatta is now set for her first start outside of Australia in another exciting development for Ciaron Maher, who landed the prestigious Melbourne Cup in November for the first time with Gold Trip.

“We’ve all decided that we’re going to take Coolangatta to Royal Ascot,” said Maher via his Twitter account.

Since the 2018-19 season, Maher has been joined on the training licence by David Eustace, who will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of father James and brother Harry, who sent out Royal Ascot winners in the 1998 Royal Hunt Cup with Refuse To Lose and last year’s Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes with Latin Lover respectively.

Jamie Kah with David Eustace, who said having a Royal Ascot runner is "a dream come true"Credit: Vince Caligiuri

“To take a horse home to Ascot is a dream come true,” said Eustace. “It is for both of us really. Ciaron and I have always been keen to travel horses if good enough and we certainly feel we’ve got the right one to do that.”

Bloodstock executive Will Bourne added: “We’ve got a lot of confidence in the filly. She obviously proved herself in Group 1 weight-for-ages this year when beating Nature Strip, who won at Royal Ascot last year, so it really instils a lot of confidence in the team and the horse that we can go over there and achieve what we want to achieve.”

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