Al Asifah looks yet another exciting filly for the Gosden stable
John and Thady Gosden's leading fillies and mares including Al Asifah
By Adam Houghton
19:30 · MON June 12, 2023
Adam Houghton reveals how Timeform reacted to Al Asifah's victory at Goodwood on Sunday, and she looks another filly out of the top drawer for John and Thady Gosden.
John and Thady Gosden are perhaps lacking a genuine top-notch colt to go to war with this season, but they are blessed with tremendous strength in depth among their squad of fillies and mares, a group which already features four individual Group One winners, plus several others who promise to make an impact at the top level before the end of the season.
Emily Upjohn (Timeform rating 128), Inspiral (124) and Nashwa (119) are a trio of four-year-old fillies who have already won in Group One company on multiple occasions, while the three-year-old Soul Sister (119p) announced her arrival on the big stage when winning the Betfred Oaks at Epsom earlier this month in the style of a very smart filly.
As for those still waiting to make the breakthrough at the very highest level, Mimikyu (114) is already a Group Two winner having struck in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster last September, Laurel (116) was Group-One placed when narrowly beaten in the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket the following month and Free Wind (122p) completed a Group Two hat-trick when winning the Middleton Stakes at York a few weeks ago.
And that doesn't even include the three-year-olds who could yet challenge Soul Sister as the pick of the Classic generation at Clarehaven Stables.
Prix de Diane contender Running Lion (115p) – withdrawn at Epsom after playing up in the stalls – and Coronation Stakes possible Queen For You (108p) could have a say in that argument in the next couple of weeks, while the unbeaten AL ASIFAH has already thrown her hat into the ring with a devastating performance at Goodwood on Sunday.
Admittedly, the Listed Agnes Keyser Fillies' Stakes probably wasn't the deepest race of its type and the timefigure was nothing out of the ordinary due to the steady gallop set by the eventual third Sumo Sam, who still had the field well bunched behind her when trying to kick from three furlongs.
However, if anything that just makes it even more impressive that Al Asifah was able to put so much daylight between herself and the rest in the latter stages, leading on the bridle two furlongs out and quickly sprinting clear from there to win hard held by six and a half lengths.
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It was the performance of a filly potentially out of the top drawer and the fact it came on just her second start – 17 days after winning a Haydock maiden by four and three-quarter lengths on debut – identifies Al Asifah as a most exciting prospect, one to keep on the right side wherever she goes next.
Her new Timeform rating of 112P (from 95p) still gives her a bit to find with stablemate Soul Sister, who sets the standard among the three-year-old middle-distance fillies, but that rival has obviously had the opportunity to prove herself against a better class of opposition. The large 'P' attached to Al Asifah's rating underlines that she is likely to prove capable of better when the situation demands it, perhaps significantly so.
An immediate step up to Group One company in the Irish Oaks – for which she would need to be supplemented – is likely to be next according to connections and it would certainly be no surprise if she puts herself in contention for top honours in this division with a big run at the Curragh.
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Incidentally, the best winner of this Listed contest when it was previously run at Newbury under the title of the Abingdon Stakes was Sea of Class, another late developer who was unraced at two. She went on to prove herself the best filly of her age group as a three-year-old in 2018, notably winning the Irish Oaks before ending the campaign with a narrow defeat in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Only time will tell whether Al Asifah can scale those heights, but she is very much one to follow for a stable which has housed – and continues to house – several brilliant fillies over the years, perhaps none more so than Sea of Class' Arc conqueror, Enable.
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