Pam Sly will give Astral Beau a break before aiming at an autumn campaign after her gallant run in the Falmouth Stakes.
The four-year-old was sent off an unconsidered 28-1 chance in the mile event on Newmarket’s July course and while like the rest she had no answer to Nashwa, who won by five lengths, Astral Beau was only two lengths further back in fourth.
Though Shane Kelly’s mount was half a length behind short-priced favourite Via Sistina, she overturned Epsom form with Prosperous Voyage and Random Harvest, who had beaten her in the Princess Elizabeth.
Sly said: “I thought she ran a cracker, even though some said she was in over her head – I don’t think she was.
“She was very good. She beat the two that beat her at Epsom, so I don’t understand that (criticism).
“She is just steadily improving, I think.”
The Cambridgeshire-based trainer will now look towards later in the year, hoping for easier ground with Astral Beau, who has won five of her 13 races, the last coming in the Doncaster Mile on her seasonal bow.
“She will go and have a holiday,” said Sly. “I think once this wet patch has gone, we are going to get some dry aren’t we?
“So she will have two or three weeks out in the paddock and I’m looking towards the end of September. I don’t think we’ll be doing any Goodwood trips.
“She takes her racing well and is very easy to train and is not a filly really, she is quite on the masculine side, quite a chunky filly. There aren’t a lot of chunky mares around.
“We have got one or two races marked out. We will try to go back to Newmarket in October, but there is a race at Ascot around the end of September, over a mile.
“We will try to keep her against her own sex. We will be looking at either Listed, Group Twos or Group Threes, preferably stopping with the fillies.”
