Juddmonte enjoyed a pleasing afternoon on Wednesday when Skellet completed the final leg of an across-the-card treble in the Listed Fortune Stakes at Sandown.
The Ralph Beckett -trained Skellet was winning for the first time since getting off the mark second up at Salisbury last season, but with some solid form in the book this year – including when runner-up in Group 3 company at Chantilly – she was sent off a well-fancied 100/30 chance to capitalise on the drop to Listed level.
Under a well-timed Hector Crouch challenge, the daughter of Kingman picked up smartly to make her bid for glory inside the final furlong and following a sustained tussle with Checkandchallenge, Ralph Beckett's filly edged to the front to prevail by a neck.
"It's been a long road with this filly," said the in-form Ralph Beckett on Racing TV. "She nearly won the Oh So Sharp and wasn't quite there in the spring. We ran her in the Irish Guineas, and she ran well and then ok in the Coronation Stakes, but we probably made too much use of her. She hit the front at Chantilly and looked like she'd win but hit the front 75 yards out and still managed to get beat."
"Anyway, today went to plan so that's great. I don't think she's really come to herself physically until now. She looks a different filly now to the one she was as a two-year-old or pre-July 1st. In the last month, she's really bloomed."
Skellet could be set for another run this season before connections look at putting her away for next year.
Beckett added: "I imagine we'll run somewhere again this autumn and then we'll look ahead at next year. There's plenty of depth to her and plenty of size about her and she'll still learning on the job a bit."
Earlier on the card, Frankel's famous green and pink silks were again in the winners' enclosure when Cosmic Year – another son of Kingman – made a visually striking debut in the Sir Michael Stoute – Farewell And Thank You Novice Stakes for trainer Harry Charlton and jockey Oisin Murphy.
A half-brother to Time Test, who won twice at Group 2 level for the same connections, Cosmic Year travelled powerfully in the hands of Oisin Murphy before quickening clear for an emphatic six-and-a-half length success from the odds-on favourite Rock d'Oro.
Speaking to Racing TV, Harry Charlton said: "I said to Barry (Mahon, Juddmonte) that if Ralph's horse goes and runs to a 100, then we can't really go with any expectation. I don't think it transpired like that, but he picked up well and more importantly, he behaved beautifully. He did everything well."
"It will be up to Juddmonte what they want to do next and see if they can juggle what I think is 28 two-year-old winners they've now had, as I think they are probably struggling to fit them into all the stakes races for the rest of the year.
"He went to run at Newbury about a month ago and we took him out because the ground was very quick, but he actually lost quite a bit of weight going to the races, so I didn't want to rush him back too quick.
"Having not had a run, it was quite hard to enter him in the big races."
Oisin Murphy added: "He's a lovely horse and he behaved well. His full-brother Tempus didn't win on debut, nor did his half-brother Time Test so it's nice to get off to a winning start. Harry (Charlton) said he's been finding it all very easy at home and you can see that nothing has fazed him. He's got a nice future."
Paddy Power introduced the winner at 33/1 for the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket next year.
Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore teamed up to land the middle leg of a quickfire afternoon across-the-card treble for connections, with Nightwalker making all the running in the EBF Future Stayers Maiden Stakes at Yarmouth.
"He had a good run the first day," said Moore, speaking on Sky Sports Racing. "We thought he'd probably win today, he's still inexperienced but he'll be a nice horse in the future. Really nice horse."
