Porta Fortuna powers to emphatic Falmouth victory
Porta Fortuna supplemented her determined victory at Royal Ascot with a dominant display in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket.
A Group One winner at two in the Cheveley Park Stakes, Donnacha O’Brien’s filly kicked off her Classic campaign by finishing second to Elmalka in the 1000 Guineas on the Rowley Mile before comprehensively reversing that form to land the Coronation Stakes at the royal meeting last month.
Having now fully proven her once questioned stamina over the mile, Porta Fortuna was the 10-11 favourite to claim a third top-level win on the July Course and stamped her authority against her elders in no uncertain terms under Ryan Moore.
Running Lion, winner of the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot, set out to make all the running in the hands of Oisin Murphy, while Porta Fortuna initially sat perfectly positioned in her slipstream.
However, Running Lion weakened quickly with more than two furlongs still to race, which perhaps left Porta Fortuna in front sooner than Moore, deputising for Tom Marquand who was required to ride at York, would have liked.
But it made little difference to the result, as the further O’Brien’s filly went, the better she looked and she passed the post with three and three-quarter lengths in hand over the improving Jabaara, with Rogue Millennium and Irish 1,000 Guineas runner-up A Lilac Rolla dead-heating for third.
O’Brien said: “With any Group One, there’s always some pressure but she’s delivered. All the best three-year-olds were there, so it’s nice to see her go and do it again.
“I don’t know what is next, we’ll take her home and have a think. I think it’s sensible to give her a little break now, then prepare her for the Matron (Leopardstown, Irish Champions Weekend), Sun Chariot and then Breeders’ Cup, something like that.
“I think the Filly & Mare is one-mile-three this year, if it was a mile-one, we’d be tempted to have a go, so it would probably be the Mile against the boys, which will be tough but all of her owners are American, so it would be nice for them, it’s always been the plan.
“She means a lot to me, you’re always trying to find one good one a year to take you to the Group Ones and she’s doing that.”
Moore, who partnered Porta Fortuna for the first time, added: “She’s a great filly and she has always shown plenty, she’s an Albany winner and a Cheveley Park winner who ran very well at the Breeders’ Cup after that.
“She ran well in the Guineas and then went and won the Coronation this year, she’s never run a bad race.
“She’s straightforward, I was fast out of the gates, we weren’t going mad but it was the perfect race really. She’s very uncomplicated and when you couple that with her ability, it makes things easy.
“The way she’s handled her contemporaries and the older fillies here, she’d have no trouble mixing with the boys.”
Varian was delighted with the performance of the runner-up and said: “She ran great, I’m thrilled with her.
“We sort of rolled the dice, she’d won two Listed races and I just thought this race always has a small field and if we could be third, it would be worth running. She’s ended up second, so we’re delighted.
“We’d have loved to have won but hats off to the winner, she’s top class and we were second best.
“She got the mile but I think she’s better at seven (furlongs), but she was ridden just to get the mile – over seven, she has a high cruising speed, she’s a filly with pace and James (Doyle) thought going into the dip she was going really well, but her guts and determination ground out second.
“As long as she comes out of it OK, we’d love to go to Goodwood for the Oak Tree and then see after that, as she’s had a busy summer. Maybe the Foret.”