Prolific young sire War Front made headlines once again when two of his juvenile daughters, Brave Anna and Roly Poly, finished first and second, respectively in the GI Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket Sept 24.
Aidan O’Brien trains both daughters of War Front. After a thrilling duel to the wire, Evelyn Stockwell’s homebred Brave Anna narrowly edged her stablemate by a head while posting a 25-1 upset in the six-furlong contest.
“They ran great races and I think when they got together they helped each other,” O’Brien said of Brave Anna and Roly Poly, a TDN Rising Star. “Brave Anna is a hardy filly and had a good break after Ascot. You’d say, looking at her today, she’d get seven (furlongs) okay. The Breeders’ Cup is a possible, but we’ll have to talk to Mrs. Stockwell who has had big faith in her all the time and said to run her here after (she finished sixth in) the Moyglare.”
The win marks the first group I score for Brave Anna, who was guided to the close victory by jockey Seamie Heffernan. She has won half of her six starts, including the Albany Stakes, for earnings of $213,423.
Brave Anna completed the Cheveley Park in 1:11.92 on good to firm turf. Out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Liscanna, she is a full sister to last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. I) winner Hit It a Bomb. Liscanna also has yearling and weanling colts by War Front.
Group III winner Roly Poly earned her first group I placing in the Cheveley Park.
Out of the remarkable four-time Group 1 winning mare, Misty For Me (Ire), Roly Poly earned TDN Rising Star status on April 25. The filly was impressive in narrowly winning her debut with an exciting, last minute rally for owners Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Mrs. John Magnier.
Roly Poly’s early star status was further confirmed with subsequent scores in the G3 Grangecon Stud Stakes at the Curragh June 26 and the G2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes July 8.