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York victory sees options open up at the Royal meeting

Magnetic Charm  carried the colours of the Queen to a narrow victory in the Oaks Farm Stables Fillies’ Stakes at York.

Trained by William Haggas, the daughter of Exceed And Excel looked an exciting prospect when opening her account at Newbury last summer and was not disgraced when stepped up to Group class in the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood and the May Hill at Doncaster.

She was a 7-1 shot for her seasonal reappearance in this Listed contest – registered as the Michael Seeley Memorial – with the John Gosden-trained Twist ‘N’ Shake the 11-8 favourite to follow up her Nottingham success of a week ago.

Supporters of the market leader will have been confident for much of the one-mile affair, with Frankie Dettori cutting a confident in the saddle before Twist ‘N’ Shake quickened to lead inside the final furlong.

However, Magnetic Charm was always in her slipstream under James Doyle and got the better of a thrilling closing battle by a neck.

Haggas’ wife and assistant, Maureen, said: “That was brilliant. She likes fast ground and last year every time she went racing it rained, so it was nice to get some fast ground.

“She’s done really well over the winter, really grown and developed and strengthened up.

“We brought her here to get her ready for Ascot. She needed a run and we thought she’d improve a lot for this run, so for her to go and do that was encouraging.

“We were looking at the Sandringham, but we might have to up our sights a bit. She is in the Coronation. She might be weighted out of the Sandringham now.”

She added: “The Queen doesn’t go racing very often, so the more runners she can have while she’s there (Ascot) and to run horses there with a chance is great.”

Speaking from Newmarket, Haggas said: “She won nicely. We were thinking Sandringham and hoping Coronation. We will still have both options, but I see no reason why we shouldn’t give the Coronation a go.

“She is brave and has done very well since last year. I wanted to give her one race before Ascot and this was the obvious place to go.

“I think she will get further, but they seemed to go fast today and she came from the back. I think she will get further in time, but there is no rush to go there yet.”

Gosden said of the runner-up: “She ran a blinder. She ran a lovely race, I’m thrilled with her.

“They were two nice fillies who drew away.”