'Maybe next year we can think about the Arc' - Kalpana continues her progression with Group 1 win

Just 13 days after Bluestocking's tour de force in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Kalpana became the latest filly to carry the Juddmonte silks to Group 1 glory in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.

Unraced at two, Kalpana has made giant strides this year, running eight times in all having made a winning debut when scraping home at Wolverhampton back in January.

So backwards as a juvenile, winning trainer Andrew Balding admitted the sales had been discussed, but the master of Kingsclere now has a Group 1 winner on his hands with races like the Arc potentially on next year's agenda.

"She's a wonderful filly and William Buick gave her a wonderful ride," said Balding. "This filly hadn't even done any fast work this time last year, so it's been a pretty steep trajectory from Wolverhampton to here."

Kalpana won a handicap off an official rating of 78 at Newmarket back in April before landing a Listed and Group 3 win, but she saved her best performance of a busy campaign for Champions Day.

"I've never known a horse improve as much," said the winning trainer. "I even recall mentioning to Barry Mahon [Juddmonte racing manager] that we might put her in a sale this time last year but every time we started to do more with her, she's just improved and improved.

"She didn't love the ground today but she coped with it. She's such a diamond and has a very special temperament.

Asked if she'd be around to continue her upward curve next year, Balding added: "I very much hope so. That was the plan before today, anyway. Juddmonte are an amazing operation from top to bottom and they thoroughly deserve the success they have.

"There's going to be a bit of heartache if her and Bluestocking ran against each other so we'll try and avoid that until we absolutely have to I guess."

Bluestocking's future has yet to be decided, according to Mahon, who said a definitive decision on both the Arc winner and Kalpana will be made in the coming weeks.

He said: "We had a discussion about Bluestocking over lunch and the family are going to discuss it further over the next seven to ten days and let us know what they want to do.

"The same goes with Kalpana. The decision will be made by her owners but the plan was for her to return next season and hopefully they haven't changed their minds. If she stays in training then maybe next year we can think about the Arc.

"The run she's been on is unbelievable and Andrew has nursed her along. He's allowed her to climb the ladder and we've ended up winning a Group 1 here today. It's been great."

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