The Fugue (near side) beats Timepiece in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes

  PICTURE: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)  

Hughes swoops late on The Fugue to win Nassau

Report: Glorious Goodwood, Saturday

Markel Insurance Nassau Stakes (Group 1) 1m2f, 3yo+ fillies and mares

RICHARD HUGHES timed his run to perfection on The Fugue to continue John Gosden's remarkable run in Group 1 contests for fillies and mares this summer.

Gosden has now won five of the six races at the top level for distaffers since his Fallen For You won the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in the middle of June.

With Tom Queally setting a modest early pace on Timepiece, Hughes was happy to bide his time at the rear of the field on The Fugue, with market rivals Was, Nahrain and the winner's stablemate Izzi Top prominent.

When Queally kicked for home over three furlongs out The Fugue still had ground to make up on the leaders and the 11-4 shot began to close in on the leaders in the final furlong.

The Fugue reeled in the gallant Timepiece to record a length victory, with Was a further length and three-quarters back in third. The 7-4 favourite Izzi Top faded to finish sixth.

Hughes, who was handed a two-day ban for the ride, said: "We went slow but I was going well and my danger was never more than two lengths in front so I was never going to get too far back. The more I pulled her back down the straight the more I was going to win on the bit.

"John told me to have it in my mind that she had had a very hard race in the Oaks and a very hard race at Ascot and she didn't want another hard race today. I managed to win without giving her a belt."

Gosden said: "There's no need to talk about the Oaks any more but the ground was too soft for her in the Ribblesdale. Everyone was worried there would be no pace here and they were right.

"Unfortunately Izzi was stacked wide pulling the whole way and she has run with the choke out. Hughesie, as he does so well at Goodwood, has sat calmly in the slipstream and taken about four pulls until we started thinking, is he actually going to let her go?"

Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Khalid Abdullah, owner of Timepiece, was delighted with the runner-up. "She's run a super race and done everything right but she's just got done over in the last furlong. She's a genuine Group 1 filly and she's done really well today."

While Aidan O'Brien said of Was: "She has run a really good race and we're delighted with her performance. The Yorkshire Oaks could be an option."

The win was Hughes's fourth of Glorious Goodwood and took him to the top of the leading rider standings by virtue of more second-place finishes than Queally.