Nakheel (right) and Jim Crowley© Photo Healy Racing
The unexposed Nakheel took full advantage of her weight allowance to hold off the consistent Night Sparkle in the Betfred Park Hill Fillies’ Stakes at Doncaster.
Trained by Owen Burrows, the three-year-old was still a maiden when the season started and has been steadily improving in Pattern company since.
She finished a four-length third to Scenic in the Galtres Stakes at York’s Ebor meeting, but looked much more at home stepping up another two furlongs in trip.
Jim Crowley chose to make his challenge down the inside, which had been shunned in the previous race, but it did not make a difference.
Ryan Moore briefly looked to be holding all the aces on Grateful after Sumo Sam last year’s winner, began to backpedal, but when stamina was at a premium, Grateful was found wanting.
Nakheel (10-1), sporting first-time cheekpieces, made her bid for home and had enough in the locker to hold off Night Sparkle by a length and a half.
Burrows said: “Watching her at York last time, we thought the trip would help, certainly a bit of ease in the ground would help and I think the cheekpieces have helped a bit as well.
“She’s not ungenuine by a long way, but they just helped her travel a bit further and sharpened her up.
“She’s been coming up through Listed races and getting placed, we thought this would be an obvious spot for her and it’s worked out great.
“She came off the bridle a fraction turning in but she came straight back on, so I knew then we still had plenty of petrol in the tank and I thought she would certainly stay on right to the line.
“We haven’t got any fancy entries, but she’s progressing nicely and we’ll speak to Sheikh Ahmed about where we go from here.
“From a trainer’s point of view, I’d love to have her back as a four-year-old, in which case I’m not sure we need to do anything else this year.
“We’re getting to know her and she’s still lightly-raced, so we’ll see.”
