Aidan O’Brien added a fourth Group 2 Rockfel Stakes to his glittering CV, as Bubbling took Friday’s feature race at Newmarket.
Bought for 320,000 guineas as a yearling, the daughter of No Nay Never is a sister to Group 2 winner Wichita and made a promising start to her career when fourth in a hot Leopardstown maiden back in July. A wide-margin victor of a Galway event subsequently, she was not disgraced when one length back in third in the Listed Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown, having suffered traffic problems in the closing furlong.
With heavy rain hitting Newmarket, Bubbling appeared to be struggling on the soft ground in the early stages. Jockey Ryan Moore asked the filly to give an effort with two furlongs to run and she responded well, hitting the front at the furlong marker and staying on well up the incline to finish two-and-a-quarter lengths ahead of Serving With Style.
In an interview with Racing TV, winning jockey Ryan Moore said: "They didn't go that mad and when they quickened, she just got a bit lost and unbalanced. She's still learning and stayed on well up the hill. She'll be comfortable going a bit further.
"We're still learning about them (O'Brien's juvenile fillies), it's early days. They won't finish their progressions for a while yet, so we'll learn and run them and Aidan will work them out."
Paddy Power reacted to the victory by cutting Bubbling to 6/1 from 16/1 for the Fillies' Mile at Newmarket on 11 October.