Qatar Nassau Stakes super stats: Whirl a worthy winner?

Although invariably pitched as a midsummer clash of the generations, the Nassau Stakes has traditionally been dominated by younger runners. Going way back to 1961, 50 renewals have gone to the Classic crop, with four-year-olds winning just nine, and five-year-olds the other five.

Aidan O’Brien gathered in last year’s renewal with the three-year-old Opera Singer and he saddles the probable favourite this year in Whirl, the Oaks runner-up whose all-the-way victory over Kalpana in the Pretty Polly Stakes last month was franked by that filly’s excellent effort in defeat in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the weekend.

While Whirl already has a Group One win to her name, the same can’t be said of main market rival (and last year’s runner-up) See The Fire who was a runaway winner at York in May but could only manage third behind Ombudsman in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out. The bad news for her supporters is that eight of the last 12 Nassau winners already had at least one top-level success to their name.

Over the same time period, every winner had run within the last 44 days – Whirl's stablemate Bedtime Story was second in the Prix de Diane 46 days ago – while Cercene was a fine winner of the Coronation Stakes when last seen but is yet to run over this far; eight of the last 12 winners had at least one previous run over this distance.

All in all, the trends strongly point to Whirl, a proven top-level three-year-old who ticks all of the boxes and, invariably ridden handily in her races, she should be best placed to strike in what could be a tactical affair.