Hands-on trainer: Lucy Wadham riding Cassique Lady
For someone better known as a jumps trainer, Lucy Wadham does an excellent job with the few flat horses in her care, with her latest success coming via Crystal Gal’s victory in Listed Dick Hern Fillies’ Stakes at Haydock on Saturday.
The four-year-old is the second Listed victrix for Wadham this season following Dorcas Lane’s success in the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket in the spring.
Crystal Gal is yet another representative of this season’s hottest cross: by Galileo, she is out of Crystal Park, a daughter of Danehill. She was purchased at Tattersalls last December by Wadham’s long-term patrons Victoria and Anthony Pakenham with the ultimate intention for her to be covered by their Derby-winning stallion Sir Percy.
Buying well-bred fillies to race on with Wadham for some black type before retiring to the paddocks is a formula that has worked well for the Pakenhams in the past. In 2007, they purchased Enforce, a Juddmonte-bred daughter of Kalanisi, who went on to win a Listed race at Goodwood before finishing third in the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes the following summer. Her first foal, a two-year-old colt by Sir Percy, is now in training with Wadham and named Perforce, and she has two more colts by the Lanwades resident to follow.
The following year, the then three-year-old Cassique Lady was another December Sales purchase and she succeeded in winning the 2009 Warwickshire Oaks and being Group-placed in the Lillie Langtry Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. Cassique Lady now has a colt foal by Sir Percy.
The first-season sire, whose progress can now be followed on Twitter (@sirpercy_sire), has had four winners so far this season, including the Listed-placed Percy Jackson.
