Queen Charlotte Stakes Winner Becomes Group 1 Star

It has been a thrill for many racing fans including the team at Chelmsford City Racecourse to watch the extraordinary progress of John Fairley’s homebred Highfield Princess this season.

Just less than two years ago, the John Quinn-trained filly arrived at Chelmsford City on the back of her first ever win. Sent off as favourite on her mark of 64 she duly won in some style under Jason Hart, and she returned here three times that winter for another two victories and a runner-up finish to end 2020 with a rating of 83.

The following May Highfield Princess was back, and was beaten just a head by Karibana at Chelmsford before going on to win the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Ascot. She then took another step up to claim her first black-type win here at Chelmsford City in the fourth running of the Listed Roederer Queen Charlotte Fillies’ Stakes.

By the end of 2021 her rating had improved again to 107, but she has now left that mark way behind in a season in which she has gone from strength to strength. Highfield Princess is now Europe’s highest-rated filly, notching consecutive Group 1 victories in France, England and Ireland in just over a month in the Prix Maurice de Gheest over six and a half furlongs, and the Nunthorpe and the Flying Five over five furlongs.

It has been a pleasure to watch Highfield Princess progress, and the team at Chelmsford offers its congratulations to her owner-breeder John Fairley, and to all the team at John Quinn’s Bellwood Cottage Stables in Malton.