Newmarket: Charlie Appleby's Cinderella's Dream thwarts January in Falmouth Stakes tussle

William Buick continued a successful July meeting by guiding Cinderella’s Dream to a maiden Group 1 crown in the Falmouth Stakes.

Trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by William Buick, Cinderella’s Dream needed to reverse Royal Ascot form with her Duke of Cambridge Stakes conqueror Crimson Advocate, while Aidan O’Brien’s three-year-old January provided a fresh test for the Godolphin runner.

Cinderella’s Dream (5-2) looked to have the measure of Crimson Advocate only for January (6-4 favourite) to deliver her challenge, with Buick’s mount battling all the way to the line to prevail by half a length, with a length and three-quarters back to Crimson Advocate in third.

“I did think when she hit the rising ground it would take a tough one to get past her,” said Appleby, who was winning the Falmouth for the first time.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know if she was firing on all cylinders at Ascot. We always look for excuses when we’re beaten so we used the bend and the 3lb penalty, but she’s been round Del Mar and you ain’t going to get many tighter turns than that, so I don’t think we can say going round Ascot was going to be too much of a challenge for her.

“Will was just happy over a mile on a straight track as maybe a mile round a bend is sharp enough.

“She won her maiden at Lingfield and then we went up to Thirsk to win her novice. She’s knee high to a grasshopper but she’s as tough as teak and I’m delighted for her as she’s been so consistent and for her to win a Group One here in Europe is richly deserved.

“We’re very much going to work back from the Breeders’ Cup Filly And Mare Turf. It annoyed me when that got away for us last year, so we’ll go back for a crack at that, how we get there we’ll work that out.”

Buick said: “She’s all class. She’s been unlucky a couple of times, but today she’s put it all together.

“What a game filly she is, it was a ding-dong between two good fillies, it was a good race and she had give the second filly 9lb, it’s never easy.

“I’m just so pleased for her, she’s been a wonderful filly all through and I’m just delighted she’s got a domestic Group One next to her name.”

Venetian Sun stays unbeaten in Duchess of Cambridge Stakes

Venetian Sun narrowly held off the late charge of Royal Fixation to win the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes and in the process took her unbeaten record to three.

Sent off the 2-5 favourite after a convincing Albany Stakes success at Royal Ascot, Venetian Sun travelled supremely well throughout the six-furlong Group Two and when Clifford Lee asked her to quicken, it looked a matter of how far.

Royal Fixation and William Buick had other ideas though, launching their challenge away from the market leader in the final furlong, with Venetian Sun’s margin only a neck in the end, although there was still a slightly cosy feel to it.

Burke said: “This race wasn’t part of the plan originally, we just made a decision last week to enter and have a look at the race and if we were happy with the filly and happy with the race then we might take our chance.

“There’s been no issues with the filly, but we haven’t trained her for this race – we’ve been fairly easy on her since Ascot, as you would expect, with the thought that we’d go for the Lowther at York or maybe the Prix Morny.

“Now she’s won a Group Two that brings the Morny into it more than the Lowther. We won’t say we’re definitely going to the Morny, but if the ground is a bit easier and it’s a race we think we can be very competitive in we could go there and still have time to get her ready for the Moyglare.

“If we’re not happy with her for the Morny, we’ll go straight to the Moyglare.”

Burke completed the Albany/Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes double with Dandalla five years ago, while Laurens and Fallen Angel were both Classic-winning fillies for the Spigot Lodge handler, who has made no secret of the regard in which he holds his latest potential star.

“I would say she’s another league above Dandalla, who was a very good racehorse but this filly is a little bit special,” he added.

“She’d be quicker than Laurens and Fallen Angel. They were high-class, Group One-winning fillies and this filly hasn’t done that yet, but she’d be a lot quicker and she’s a very straightforward filly with a fantastic mind.”

Ed Walker was delighted with the performance of runner-up Royal Fixation.

He said: “I’m very proud of her. You come in here off the back of a Thirsk maiden and you don’t really know how good you are, but she’s very good.

“It would have been disappointing if she had run badly as we rate her very highly among our two-year-olds, but to run that filly (Venetian Sun) as close as we did is pretty exciting because I think she’s a very special filly.

“Briefly I thought we might get there. I could just sense from Will’s body language that he thought he had a chance.

“I think she was a bit green. She never came off the bridle at Thirsk so today is the first time she’s had a proper race. There’s lots more to come, I’d say.

“I don’t know where we’ll go next – I’ll have a cold beer and worry about that later. The Lowther has got to be a potential target.”

King’s Charter rules for Buick and Appleby

Charlie Appleby and William Buick picked up where they left off on day two of the July Festival, with King’s Charter swooping late to land the £100,000 Bet365 Handicap.

Following a Thursday treble for the Moulton Paddocks team that featured Buick’s 2,000th winner in Britain, King’s Charter was the 9-4 favourite for Friday’s curtain-raiser, having opened his account at the third attempt on his first start as a three-year-old at Doncaster last month.

Charlie Johnston’s Marhaba Ghaiyyath kicked for home a long way out and proved a tough adversary, but Buick timed his challenge to perfection aboard King’s Charter, who just proved speedier in the finish and passed the post with three-quarters of a length in hand.

Appleby said: “We felt the step up to 10 furlongs would hopefully see a bit of improvement, which was going to be needed at a meeting like this, and he’s duly obliged with that.