By Tom Frary
Turning the Listed Chesham Stakes into her own Royal Ascot procession on Saturday, Ballydoyle's TDN Rising Star Bedtime Story (Ire) (Frankel {GB}–Mecca's Angel {Ire}, by Dark Angel {Ire}) recorded the widest-margin win of the week by some way to enter the 2025 Classic conversation.
Content to follow the leaders in the group racing up the centre, the 11-8 favourite who had won a Leopardstown maiden earlier this month was let loose by Ryan Moore two out and surged clear for an emphatic 9 1/2-length success. Pentle Bay (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) was next, with Brian (Ire) (Shaman {Ire}) half a length back in third. “She's a very good filly,” Moore said. “She travelled very easily and they've gone too slow for her really. When I moved the race was over very quickly. She is a level above all of them. A performance like that, you don't see normally.”
Bedtime Story's sensational performance was as impressive on the clock as it was to the eye as she surpassed the eight-length winning margin of Three Valleys (Diesis {GB}) in the 2003 G3 Coventry Stakes and the seven-length success of Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy) in the 2016 G2 Queen Mary Stakes. Closing out with sectionals of 11.38 and 11.57, she hit 35.14 for the last three furlongs which readily eclipsed the 36.05 of the 4-year-old English Oak (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in Thursday's Buckingham Palace Stakes over the same trip.
Aidan O'Brien, who like Moore was welcoming his sixth winner of the meeting, said, “We never let Bedtime Story go before and this was the first time she was asked to stretch. Ryan said he couldn't believe it–he said everyone fell away, he said 'go on' and she just took off. He didn't even give her a slap down the shoulder.
“We thought she was probably a group 1 filly, but we hadn't looked–thinking is one thing and seeing is another, so everyone saw it together today. It was the first time she was ever dropped down, really. She's got an unbelievable pedigree, she's a homebred. She's very special, isn't she?”
O'Brien is keen to keep Bedtime Story and Thursday's G3 Albany Stakes winner Fairy Godmother apart for now. “Bedtime Story will be staying at seven furlongs,” he added. “It is unusual on fast ground to do that.”
George Boughey said of Pentle Bay, who had been purchased for £400,000 by Teme Valley Racing and Ciaron Maher at the Goffs London Sale on Monday, “The winner looks a superstar–she's by a champion, out of a champion. I expected Pentle Bay to run as he did today. He has shown plenty at home and did the race the right way round, which was really key–it's really key for him to relax. He's a horse with a big future.”
“Ciaron Maher and his team are going to have a really fun horse when he does get down to Australia,” he added. “He's still very raw. I think a race that stands out immediately is probably the [G2] Vintage at Goodwood. Not many New Bays feature this early in the season. He's out of a Galileo mare and the pedigree would suggest that he's going to be a miler, possibly a 10-furlong horse.”
Impressive! Bedtime Story wins the Chesham Stakes at Royal @Ascot! pic.twitter.com/xUzC5tpeVl
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 22, 2024
Pedigree Notes
Bedtime Story is the fifth foal out of the dual G1 Nunthorpe S. heroine Mecca's Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), whose fourth is the stable's G3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes winner Content (Ire) by Frankel's sire Galileo (Ire) who was 13th in this 12 months ago. Mecca's Angel is a full-sister to the G3 Chipchase Stakes and G3 Criterion Stakes winner Markaz (Ire) and a granddaughter of the G3 Prix d'Arenberg winner Desert Dawn (GB) (Belfort {Fr}), who was second in the G2 Norfolk Stakes here. Next up from Mecca's Angel's is a 2024 full-sister to Bedtime Story.
Saturday, Royal Ascot, Britain
CHESHAM STAKES-Listed, £110,000, Ascot, 6-22, 2yo, 7fT, 1:27.01, g/f.
1–BEDTIME STORY (IRE), 126, f, 2, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Mecca's Angel (Ire) (MG1SW-Eng, GSW-Ire, GSW & G1SP-Fr, $999,035), by Dark Angel (Ire)
2nd Dam: Folga (GB), by Atraf (GB)
3rd Dam: Desert Dawn (GB), by Belfort (Fr)
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. TDN Rising Star. O-Derrick Smith, Mrs
John Magnier & Michael Tabor; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Aidan
O'Brien; J-Ryan Moore. £62,381. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0,
$90,415. *1/2 to Content (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), GSW-Ire,
$117,067. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree,
or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Pentle Bay (Ire), 131, c, 2, New Bay (GB)–My Wish (Ire), by
Galileo (Ire). 1ST BLACK TYPE. (120,000gns Wlg '22 TADEWE;
€55,000 2yo '24 ARQBRU; £400,000 2yo '24 GOFLO). O-Teme
Valley & Ciaron Maher; B-Ringfort Stud Ltd (IRE); T-George
Boughey. £23,650.
3–Brian (Ire), 131, c, 2, Shaman (Ire)–Alys Love (GB), by New
Approach (Ire). 1ST BLACK TYPE. (€8,500 Wlg '22 GOFNO1;
6,000gns RNA Ylg '23 TATSOM). O-Mr T R Lock & Partner;
B-Alys Love Syndicate (IRE); T-Sylvester Kirk. £11,836.
Margins: 9HF, HF, 3/4. Odds: 1.38, 5.00, 28.00.
Also Ran: Jewel of London (GB), Miss El Fundi (GB), Expensive Rose (Ire), Age of Gold (Ire), Defence Missile (Ire), Metro Dubai (Fr), Hot Like Me (Ire), Moon Sniper (GB), Lazy Griff (Ger), Motawahij, Duke Of Monroth, Shocker (Ire). Scratched: Chilly Breeze (GB), Harvey (Fr), Seaplane (GB).
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