Zhukova is a Runaway stakes winner for Fastnet Rock

Zhukova (4f Fastnet Rock-Nightime, by Galileo) looks set for a good season after winning a Listed contest by nearly five lengths on her first start of the year. The Dermot Weld-trained filly hit the front a furlong from home in the Listed Amethyst Stakes before scoring with a winning margin of four and three-quarter lengths. Bred by the trainer’s late mother Marguerite, Zhukova is owned by Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez who has already campaigned one top-class Fastnet Rock filly, last season’s G1 Oaks heroine Qualify (4f Fastnet Rock-Perihelion, by Galileo). “She's a nice mare,” said Dermot Weld. “She won the Oyster Stakes last year and has grown and strengthened over the winter. My late mother bred her, and we have all the family. "It was an excellent renewal of the race, and was really of a Group 1 or Group 2 standard. I'm not sure where she will go next. The G3 Blue Wind Stakes at Naas is a possibility.”