Midnight Affair 8-1 for Queen Mary Stakes as Fahey lands big-race double
Midnight Affair emerged as a leading contender for the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot with an impressive success in the Hilary Needler Trophy, the first leg of a big-race double for Richard Fahey.
An unlucky second on her debut at Newmarket last month, the daughter of Dark Angel made amends in terrific fashion when finishing a length and a quarter clear of Flora Of Bermuda under Danny Tudhope.
She was cut to 8-1 (from 11) for the Queen Mary and 10-1 (from 12) for the Albany Stakes by Paddy Power, and is set to be aimed at the former by Fahey.
"We do like her an awful lot at home, she always works really well," he said. "We feel she's still learning, the better ones don't always come off the bridle but she's learning and that was a good performance. She's very uncomplicated. We're very happy with her.
"Owner Steve Parkin is very keen to go for the Queen Mary and that's where we'll aim with her. He won it last year - it's his race now!"
Parkin, who races Midnight Affair under the banner of his company Clipper Logistics, won the Group 2 last year with leading King's Stand Stakes hope Dramatised, and he believes he has a good chance of securing back-to-back victories.
Steve Parkin: owner of Midnight Affair
He said: "Richard has been saying he likes her a lot and she's done that really well. He says that she doesn't come off the bridle at home and gets all the others off the bridle. She must be quite good and it's lovely to see her do that on the track.
"We'll have a crack at the Queen Mary now as it's a race we haven't done too badly in. I won it with Dramatised last season and we hope she can develop into another really nice filly like her."
For Tudhope, it was a second victory in succession in the Hilary Needler, won by Classic winner Attraction in 2003, following Star Of Lady M's win last year.
Fahey landed the other feature race of the day, the bet365 Two Year Old Trophy, with Bombay Bazaar.
The son of Kodiac backed up last month's course-and-distance novice success when surging down the outside to win by three-quarters of a length under Oisin Orr, and looks set for the Windsor Castle Stakes at the royal meeting.
"They're two great two-year-old races us northern lads like to win. That was quite impressive and he came home well," Fahey said. "It didn't look like a bad race on paper and it was a good, solid performance.
"He's getting better. He's a homebred who missed out on going to the sales and he'll improve drastically. The owner [Hussain Alabbas Lootah] will be keen to go and I think the Windsor Castle Stakes will be the one. There's no reason for him not to go."
Murphy magic
Oisin Murphy got on the scoresheet and took his record at the track to nine wins from 23 rides with a double.
Murphy guided United Front to success in the 7½f handicap before narrowly landing the 1m4f handicap on Sovereign Spirit.
Oisin Murphy: rider was in fine form at Beverley on Saturday
Speaking after Sovereign Spirit's win, he said: "I had two seconds to begin with and I need to keep on winning here. I was unsure if we'd got it in the photo-finish. The pace was really steady and he had a look at the stables. It wasn't that smooth, but I'm delighted to ride another winner here."
Murphy finished second on three of his other rider on the card, including when narrowly defeated by Dandy's Angel aboard the favourite Berry Edge in the 1m2f handicap.
Hot course form
George Boughey's strong form at the track continued when Abbadia got off the mark in the opening 7½f maiden, taking the trainer's strike-rate at Beverley to 27 per cent.
Winning jockey Kevin Stott said: "You have to have a horse that really travels around here and she did that, fair play to George and the team.
"I got to the front pretty easy, but I had the race pretty easy too. We knew she had a good chance."
Red-hot trainer
Adrian Nicholls took his strike-rate to 56 per cent in the last fortnight with Thornaby Beauty's thrilling win in the concluding 7½f handicap.
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