Cause For Celebration As Alcohol Free Wins Coronation Stakes

Alcohol Free (3f No Nay Never - Plying, by Hard Spun) returned to her best at Royal Ascot to celebrated her second top-flight success in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes.

Trained by Andrew Balding for Jeff Smith, the bay showed her class when winning the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes last season and took the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes on return in April. Partnered by Oisin Murphy, she raced in midfield on Friday, making headway with two furlongs left to race and led early in the final furlong. Running on well, she scored by a length and a half from the fast-finishing Snow Lantern and Mother Earth (Zoffany) in second and third respectively, while German 1,000 Guineas heroine Novemba (Gleneagles) claimed fourth.

“She's very classy,” Balding commented after the race, while the winning owner said, “It's very emotional. We felt very unlucky in the Guineas. We trained her for this race and what a delivery. It's absolutely fabulous.”

Bred by Churchtown House Stud, Alcohol Free is a half-sister to Listed winner Alexander James (Camelot) and has a two-year-old half-sister by Starspangledbanner who sold for 130,000gns last November.