The front-running Masamah bounced back at Chester on Sunday to win the Listed Queensferry Stakes in impressive fashion just a week after he also made all to win the five-furlong (1000m) JRA Sprint Stakes at Ascot.
The four-year-old Exceed And Excel gelding, who was bred in partnership by Stanley Estate & Stud and Mount Coote Stud, has now won five of his 12 races since bursting onto the scene with an eye-catching debut victory at York as a two-year-old.
Exceed And Excel is enjoying another fruitful year, with 18 juvenile winners to date and the Group Three winner Tech Exceed among his 11 black-type performers this season.
Shamardal filly Elle Shadow suffered an agonisingly close defeat in the G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) when just touched off on the line by Noverre filly Enora.
Having won the Listed Berberis Rennen earlier this season and being placed in the G3 Diana Trial, Elle Shadow was bidding to become the third Group One winner for her sire following her compatriot Lope de Vega, winner, like Shamardal himself, of the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains and G1 Prix du Jockey-Club.
The young stallion’s other top-flight winner is the Australian-bred Faint Perfume, who won the VRC Oaks in November and is already being considered for a return to Flemington’s Spring Carnival later this year when she will be aiming to give trainer Bart Cummings a 13th Melbourne Cup. The world’s most prestigious staying race was won last year by Shocking, a son of Shamardal's close relative Street Cry.
