See The Fire - heads to Goodwood

See The Fire seeking Group One glory in Nassau Stakes

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon July 21, 2025 · 5M ago

See The Fire will aim for a breakthrough Group One success when she lines up for the Visit Qatar Nassau Stakes at the Qatar Goodwood Festival next week as connections eye a potential Breeders' Cup trip too.

The 10-furlong contest is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series which consists off 93 stakes races in 15 countries whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held on October 31-November 1 at Del Mar.

Andrew Balding's charge was last seen finishing third behind Ombudsman in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot and has strong course form at Goodwood having chased home Opera Singer in last years Nassau.

"We thought she ran a super race at Ascot, against the boys, in the Prince of Wales's. She's had a little break since then with the view to prepare her for the Nassau again, and hopefully going one better than we did last year," the trainer said.

"The Prince Of Wales's was run at a ferocious gallop and it suited the closers. In hindsight, we rode her to sit in behind Los Angeles, and focus on beating him, which left us vulnerable at the end of the race. Having said that, they're top-class horses and we might not have beaten them whatever we'd done.

"It was still a career best performance, and she'll have an easier time, you'd have thought, against her own sex, in the Nassau. It's never easy at Group One level, but she’s going there in great shape.”

Balding has yet to saddle a winner at the Breeders’ Cup but is a big supporter of the meeting.

“The Win and You're In incentive is very important for any owner, it certainly pushes the Breeders' Cup to the forefront of your priorities,” he said. “The Breeders' Cup is a hugely important meeting worldwide, but it does come at the end of a long season so it really depends on how she is training at the end of the season, and what happens between now and then, but it’s very much on the shortlist for our autumn campaign.

"I remember my dad taking a horse called Selkirk, who was the Champion miler in England, to run at Gulfstream Park (in the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Mile). I remember the excitement and buzz around the yard for the three weeks leading up to it.

"It would be lovely to think one day we would have a horse good enough to be competitive in a Breeders' Cup race, we've had a couple of runners so far but no joy, so it's something very much that we are striving to achieve."

See The Fire seeking Group One glory in Nassau Stakes

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