Group 2 Success For Talented St Mark’s Basilica Filly

The talented Aylin (2f St Mark’s Basilica - Angelic Light, by Dark Angel) stepped up to secure Group 2 honours in the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster on Thursday.

Trained by Karl Burke, the filly was a winner on her second start at Goodwood in July and was a strong-finishing third in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes back at that track last month.

Stepping up to a mile on her fourth start, the two-year-old came home well under David Egan to secure victory by three-quarters of a length.

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 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 1s, either the Fillies’ Mile or the Prix Marcel Boussac."

He 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.”

The Yeomanstown Stud-bred Aylin is the first Group winner and second individual stakes scorer for St Mark’s Basilica, the other being Tipperary Listed winner Thesecretadversary.

That colt runs in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday, having also finished second in the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot this term.