No doubting Words Of Truth in Mill Reef Stakes

Progressive juvenile Words Of Truth secured a third straight win on his Pattern-race debut with an admirable display in the G2 Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury on Saturday.

Having scored on quicker ground at Ascot and Newmarket, the son of Lope de Vega had no problem with softer conditions as he reeled in Into The Sky close home for a length success

Multiple G1-winning miler Ribchester and Champion Sprinter Harry Angel have won the same race in recent years. As a gelding, Words Of Truth is unable to run in Classics or the Commonwealth Cup and the G3 Jersey Stakes could be a possible `long-term target.

Fellow two-year-old Look To The Stars scored at the same course on Friday with a comfortable victory in the Haynes, Hanson & Clark Conditions Stakes. Subsequent Derby winners Henbit and Shergar captured the race in the distant past, with Yibir the highest-profile recent winner. 

Yibir’s full-sister Romantic Symphony made a successful debut at Newmarket on Saturday. She could return to the same course for the Listed Montrose Stakes later in the autumn before stepping up to middle distances as a three-year-old.

Saratoga may hold the reputation as the ‘graveyard of champions’, although Parx has proved a notoriously difficult racecourse for Godolphin, with Frosted the only royal blue runner to win a Graded Stakes at the track.

Kentucky Oaks scorer Good Cheer added her name to a significant list of Godolphin heavyweights to have been defeated as she finished sixth in Saturday’s G1 Cotillion Stakes – a race in which It’s Tricky, Questing, Tarifa and Pretty Mischievous have all been beaten. Top colts Alpha and Speaker’s Corner have also failed to shine at the Pennsylvania course.

A pair of three-year-old fillies enjoyed better fortune at Churchill Downs on Saturday, with last season’s Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Immersive getting her first win of the season in the Seneca Overnight Stakes.

The daughter of Nyquist, himself another horse to have been beaten at Parx, looks set for a return to Graded company as she aims to add to her G1 wins in the Spinaway Stakes, Darley Alcibiades Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Ragtime missed the whole of her juvenile season but the Union Rags homebred has made an impressive start to her career over the summer, scoring impressively on her first two appearances at Saratoga before a neck second at the same course’s G1 Test Stakes. She gained a deserved first Graded Stakes win when flashing home to take the G3 Dogwood Stakes.

Versatile colt Encino posted his fourth Stakes victory when taking the Presque Isle Mile under the lights of Presque Isle Downs on Friday night. The four-year-old also scored on the all-weather in last year’s John Battaglia Stakes, in addition to taking the G3 Lexington Stakes on dirt and this season’s Jonathan B Schuster Stakes on turf.

Two Godolphin veterans team up at Aqueduct this Saturday, with Frankie Dettori partnering Rebel’s Romance in the G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. The evergreen seven-year-old is chasing a 20th career win, and ninth top-level success, and his main danger could be stablemate El Cordobes, who captured the G1 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga in August.

Wise Approach will be looking to emulate last year’s European Champion Two-Year-Old Shadow Of Light with victory in the G1 Middle Park Stakes on the same day. The Newmarket contest has a rich pedigree of producing future stallions, with Darley residents Earthlight and Perfect Power featuring on the recent roll of honour.