Black-Type Success For Unbeaten Crystal Ocean Filly

Highland Crystal (3f Crystal Ocean - Glasgow Allen, by American Post) remained unbeaten with an emphatic win in the Listed Fillies' Juvenile Hurdle at Newbury on Friday.

The daughter of Crystal Ocean had landed a Punchestown Academy Hurdle by 14 lengths on debut earlier this month and produced another impressive display to capture her first black-type victory.

Trained by Gordon Elliott and ridden by Jordan Gainford, the three-year-old was initially held up in rear before making headway from three flights out. Highland Crystal duly went clear up the run-in to post a six-and-a-half-length score.

Elliott said: “She doesn’t do anything fancy at home and it’s kind of hard to tell where we are but she’s a good mare and we’re lucky.

“We’ll keep her to her own sex, I think, at the moment and it looks like all she will do is stay.

“To be fair to her, it all happened a bit fast early and I haven’t done much with her the last couple of weeks. I would say she was just a bit green in the race today but the further she went, the better she was, so it’s great.

“Wodhooh [who won the race two years ago] is a big, old-fashioned chaser whereas this one is perhaps more of a Flat horse going jumping, when she’s actually National Hunt-bred. She’s got a big engine, though, and that’ all that matters.”

Highland Crystal was bred by the Glasgow Allen Partnership.