Sioux Nation Filly Lands Rockfel Stakes Victory

Zanthos (2f Sioux Nation - Brioniya, by Pivotal) ran out an eye-catching winner of the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket on Friday.

The Simon and Ed Crisford-trained two-year-old had bolted up on debut at Newmarket’s July course in August and was regaining the winning thread after a runner-up spot at Leicester earlier this month.

A €1 million Arqana Breeze-Up Sale purchase in May, the daughter of Sioux Nation showed plenty of pace on her third start to lead on the stands’ side. She kept on well under Oisin Murphy to win by half-a-length.

Ed Crisford said: “We just said to Oisin to keep her happy and let her use her stride. I thought she was maybe doing a bit too much in the early part, but she was travelling so well.

“I was a bit nervous the last half-furlong but she stuck on well and she’s a classy filly.”

On her Leicester defeat, the trainer added: “We didn’t realise the pace was going to be that slow and we’d tried to do something different. It turned into a two-furlong sprint. Whether that suited Touleen that day I’m not sure, but we put our filly behind and she was doing too much.

“Oisin told us to put a line through the race and to move on, so we were confident we were going to run well today but maybe not beat the Leicester winner.

“She’s obviously a very talented filly with a lot of ability and hopefully she can turn into a proper filly.”

Zanthos was bred by Viktor Timoshenko and Andriy Milovanov.