Sam James rode Glamis Road to win in France last weekend © Photo Healy Racing
The future is bright for Ollie Sangster after Glamis Road gave the trainer more reason to dream ahead of next season when winning at Saint-Cloud on Sunday.
The Manton handler, who is the grandson of the legendary owner-breeder Robert Sangster, has already registered stakes victories with Simmering, Ellaria Sand and Celestial Orbit this term, while Flight is another two-year-old to perform with credit in deep waters during the Flat turf season.
Now he has added another member to his crack team of fillies thanks to the Nick Bradley Racing-owned youngster, who made up for a luckless trip to Chantilly when fourth in the Prix Miesque by winning the Listed Prix Herod in the Paris suburbs.
With the handler blessed with a yard stacked with talent to fire at next year’s early-season Classic trials, and having shown a liking for racing on the continent, Sangster envisages a return to France for Glamis Road in 2025, with hopes high she can continue heading in the right direction following her season-ending success.
Sangster said: “She won well and we thought she was maybe a bit unlucky the last day in the Prix Miesque. She’s been in good form since, so we were happy to have another go and try and win a stakes race with her.
“It was straightforward and she did it really well – she probably idled in the last furlong but she was well on top, I think.
“She will be done for the year now and we will probably work back from a Guineas trial, I suppose. She seems to enjoy herself in France and I’m in a nice position where I have a few talented mile fillies moving forward for next year, so she could be one we target at a French Guineas or something.”
Sangster hit the headlines with Shuwari during his first season in the training ranks and has showcased his handling skills once again this term, with Simmering proving the star attraction during a year that has yielded over £400,000 in prize-money in the UK alone.
Second to Aidan O’Brien’s Fairy Godmother in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, she went on to be purchased by Al Shaqab Racing and won both the Princess Margaret Stakes and Prix du Calvados at Group level, before finishing runner-up to Ballydoyle’s unbeaten Lake Victoria in the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes in September.
Simmering finished her season with a fourth-placed effort at ParisLongchamp in the Prix Marcel Boussac, but the trainer is hopeful she will be able to make her mark at the highest level next year, especially when encountering quicker ground.
Sangster said: “I was happy with her run in France and they got a bit strung out and we were quite a way off the pace. It was just that soft ground didn’t quite work for her and the wheels were spinning. We were happy with the run in the circumstances.
“She will hopefully be a nice filly for some quick-ground mile races next year and hopefully we have a chance of putting a Group One next to her name – she already has a Group Two and Group Three.”
On his star-studded team for 2025, he added: “Hopefully, the fillies I have can progress into next year. It’s always hard to know but at the start of the season, we always felt like we had a nice team of two-year-olds and a nice group of fillies judged on their homework earlier this year.
“Until you get them to the track, it’s hard to know quite where that level is and luckily they have proven to be of a reasonable level and they have performed well consistently throughout the year. We won stakes races earlier in the year and it is nice to win one now in November as well.”
