Aylin came home strongly to pick up the Betfred May Hill Stakes at Doncaster and continue a dream season for Karl Burke with his juveniles.
Third in the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood last month, Aylin (5/1) still had plenty to do as the runners entered the final quarter mile of the one-mile Group Two contest.
However, her stamina soon kicked in and once David Egan asked his mount for maximum effort she powered past Andrew Balding’s Pacific Mission (second) and Aidan O’Brien’s Sugar Island (third) to take top spot.
The unbeaten Venetian Sun has flown the flag for the Spigot Lodge handler this term, but now he can add Aylin to the mix for next year’s Classics after she joined one of the trainer’s most famous alumni Laurens (2017) and Darnation (2023) on the May Hill roll of honour.
Burke said: “She stayed well and we always thought she would stay, but there’s staying in lesser company and staying in this company and she’s proved she’s up to this Group-race level.
“She came to us with a big reputation. Kia (Joorabchian) owns half of her with Al Shaqab Racing and he was pretty keen for her to come to us, so I’m delighted for everybody.”
“She was very well in herself and very fit today, so I don’t think you’ll improve much on fitness with her, and it’s just a question now whether she can hold her form for another month and we can run her in one of the Group Ones, either the Fillies’ Mile or the Prix Marcel Boussac,” Burke added.
“She’s got entries in both and she certainly deserves to have a go on that performance, but you’d like to be going in there confident that she was as well in herself as she was today.”
Connections were delighted with the performance of runner-up Pacific Mission, who faced a steep rise in class after opening her account on the all-weather at Kempton.
Balding’s wife, Anna-Lisa, said: “She’s a lovely filly, it was a step up in class and she’s risen to the challenge beautifully.
“I think Colin (Keane) has given her a beautiful ride, we were beaten by a good horse on the day and I think her three-year-old career is going to be exciting.
“She showed us what we really hoped we’d see today. We’ll see how she comes out of it and see what Andrew thinks about running her again, but we could just put her away until next year.”
The disappointment of the race was undoubtedly the Sir Mark Prescott-trained Moon Target, who was one place in front of Aylin at Goodwood and the 11/10 favourite to get back to winning ways. The distress signals were obvious from some way out, however, and she could only finish seventh of the eight starters.