Thirteen Declared for Listed Chelmer Fillies’ Stakes

The Listed ‘Ire-Incentive, It Pays To Buy Irish’ Chelmer Fillies’ Stakes, the first of two Listed contests to be staged at Chelmsford City Racecourse this year, has drawn a field of 13 runners for Thursday’s six-furlong contest. Worth a total of £87,500, the race offers prize-money more than £30,000 higher than equivalent Listed contests at Ascot, Goodwood and Newmarket within the same week.

Leading the entries for Thursday is the William Stone-trained Group 3 winner Romantic Time, whose three juvenile victories include the G3 Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes in 2021.

“She has been absolutely wonderful for our stable and we feel she didn’t quite stay the seven furlongs of the Nell Gwyn and the Rockfel, so we are hoping that dropping her back to six furlongs will see her in a better light. She’s so fast at home and she seems very well,” said Stone.

“When you look through the programme book it is quite hard to find three-year-old filly races that are not open to older horses, or otherwise you have three-year-old races that are open to colts. So the appeal was to take on three-year-old fillies, and obviously Chelmsford have put a lot of money on, which is encouraging.”

A duo of fillies entered for the Nick Bradley Racing Syndicate include the consistent Hello My Darlin, trained by George Boughey and recently runner-up in the Listed Whitsbury Manor Stud British EBF Lansdown Stakes at Bath.

Also in the field, representing Richard Hannon’s stable, is the 100-rated Listed winner Symphony Perfect, who was beaten only two lengths when fifth to Wild Beauty in the G3 Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Newbury.

Chelmsford City’s Racing Director Neil Graham said: “We are delighted to have attracted such a high-class field for the Chelmer Fillies’ Stakes. Smaller field sizes have been an issue for racing in Britain this season, but we are putting up very decent prize-money for this race, as we are doing at Chelmsford City across the board this season, and it is great to see it supported by such a range of stables around the country.

“We are also very grateful to Irish Thoroughbred Marketing for their support of Chelmsford City Racecourse. This race is another in which if the winning filly is Irish-bred the owner will receive a €10,000 voucher to be spent at the Irish yearling sales.”

A total of £142,650 in prize-money is on offer across seven races at Chelmsford City on Thursday evening, with racing set to get underway at 4.40pm.