Six-time champion jockey speaks to Graham Dench about the Sir Michael Stoute-trained filly, who followed up her second success in the Yorkshire Oaks in 2003 with victory at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita
As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, the Yorkshire Oaks at York on Thursday (August 24) is a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita on November 4
Islington’s two classy wins in the Yorkshire Oaks pre-dated the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, but both times the G1 Ebor meeting highlight provided a perfect platform for a tilt at the end-of-year championships that trainer Sir Michael Stoute so loves to target.
In the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf of 2002, when Arlington Park was host, Islington was not well away from an inside draw, and that no doubt contributed to a troubled run. There was no disgrace in her third behind the Bobby Frankel-trained fillies, Starine and Banks Hill, but her regular rider Kieren Fallon felt she was unlucky.
“We got blocked and got no run,” he recalls. “I’m my own worst critic and I thought we probably should have won; Sir Michael probably thought so too.”
However, at Santa Anita 12 months later it was a different story and the filly he describes as “one in a million” delivered a very special victory.
Fallon won six British jockeys’ championships, two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes, and no fewer than 16 domestic Classics in a star-studded, though often troubled, career. But he cherishes the memory of Islington’s Breeders’ Cup win.
Carrying the pale blue and yellow silks of the Weinstocks’ Ballymacoll Stud, Islington arrived fresher in 2003 after sidestepping the Arc. What is more, she had been given special treatment to prepare her for the Californian heat, Stoute having left no stone unturned in his bid to improve upon a Breeders’ Cup record that, while including wins in the Turf with Pilsudski and Kalanisi, had also featured plenty of disappointments.
Islington had not been as visually impressive in her second Yorkshire Oaks as in her first but she had since run a career-best against colts when a close third to High Chaparral and Falbrav in the Irish Champion Stakes. The four-year-old had the firm ground she loved, and in a race in which outsider Bien Nicole was soon racing on a long lead, there were no traffic problems.
‘We had a dream run’
“Unlike the year before, we got a lovely run,” said Fallon, who received a hug from his friend Frankie Dettori as they pulled up. “I got the breaks and we had a dream run throughout – the type of run you don’t usually get at the Breeders’ Cup, where it’s always very difficult.
“She was one in a million and loved firm ground, which you could nearly always count on at Santa Anita. She hopped off it, unlike a lot of fillies, and beat two good three-year-olds of Aidan O’Brien’s. 
“Edgar Prado rode the runner-up L’Ancresse,and he was always hard to beat when he got on the lead, so I enjoyed that. It was only a neck, but Islington won easily really and we were clear of the rest.”
Fallon retired in 2016 and nowadays enjoys a much less pressurised life as one of Charlie Appleby’s key work riders.“It was my first Breeders’ Cup win, so very special, and to this day that’s probably one of my favourite wins,” he says. “It’s the sort of race I’d dreamed about since I’d started riding.
“We’d had a great year, and winning at Santa Anita capped it all. From day one she had always shown us she had so much ability and it was great to win for owners the Weinstocks, who bred her and were a great family. Doing it for Sir Michael made it even more special.”
Islington was voted North America’s champion turf female for 2023 at the Eclipse Awards but her owner Lord Weinstock did not live to enjoy her major successes. He had described Islington as “the nearest thing I’ve seen to perfection in a filly” after she had won her maiden, pondering that she might have been better kept at home as a pet, but sadly died just 11 days before the first of Islington’s three top-level wins.
Stoute, who has since won the Filly & Mare Turf twice more with Dank (2013) and Queen’s Trust (2016), has made even more of a habit of winning the Yorkshire Oaks, his nine wins including one with Islington’s dam Hellenic in 1990. He knows exactly what is required to win the race, and no doubt had it in mind for Islington from a very early stage.
Fallon explains: “Sir Michael always has a plan for these horses from the time they first come into the yard. He’d only share those plans to an extent, as he’s very deep, but I’d half-know what he was thinking and what the goals were.
‘Islington loved York’
“Islington loved York,” he goes on. “She was a big filly and a beautifully easy mover, and the galloping track and top of the ground there suited her perfectly. When I’d won the Musidora there on her in the spring it confirmed to us how good she was because she managed to hold on even though I’d gone way too soon on her.”
He adds: “It was soft ground in the Epsom Oaks, which she never liked, but she then went to Goodwood and won the Nassau easily before returning to York for the Yorkshire Oaks. She was really impressive that day, beating the German filly Guadalupe by five lengths.
“People said she was more workmanlike when she went back to York for her second win in the Yorkshire Oaks, but she could be like that. She could travel, but she was so laid back to ride. She wasn’t highly strung like Ouija Board, who I won the Filly & Mare Turf on again the year after that. She was a very easy ride.”
Although Islington was naturally gifted and very straightforward, Fallon doubts that any trainer other than Stoute would have done so well with her. “I was very lucky to be with Sir Michael and to learn so much from him,” he says.
“For me he’s the greatest I was ever involved with at getting a horse to peak when he wanted it to, and preparing one for a particular race.
“Islington was so well looked after and her programme was so carefully planned. If anybody else had trained her she probably wouldn’t have reached anywhere near the same heights.”
… and after the Breeders’ Cup
Islington ran only once more after her second Breeders’ Cup, well below form when only ninth of 18 in the Japan Cup in Tokyo. “It was the end of a busy campaign which had involved a lot of travelling, and it’s often difficult for a filly after a long season,” says Fallon. “Also, the ground in Japan tends to be easier than she liked. It was officially yielding, and we knew she liked to skip off fast ground.”
Islington returned afterwards to Ballymacoll Stud in Ireland, where Troy, Pilsudski and Sun Princess were among the great horses bred. However, while she produced her fair share of winners (several of them for Stoute), none were blessed with anything like her own gifts.
Islington was 18 when fetching 270,000gns at the Ballymacoll Stud’s dispersal sale at Tattersalls in 2017.
Graham Dench: Yorkshire Oaks 2023 verdict
The Yorkshire Oaks has been won by the favourite in each of the last six years – including by Arc winners Alpinista and Enable, but it’s fair to say that there’s nothing of quite their class in this year’s line-up.
In a nevertheless intriguing clash of the generations the three-year-olds are represented principally by Savethelastdance and Bluestocking, first and second in last month’s Irish Oaks, while the pick of the older runners look to be the Gosden’s smart five-year-old Free Wind and the recent winner of Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes, Al Husn.
Slight preference in an open affair is for SAVETHELASTDANCE, who found a remarkable late burst to win at The Curragh after being beaten only by Soul Sister at Epsom. She would be a sixth winner of the race for Aidan O’Brien.
• The annual Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ Challenge is an international series of 80 stakes races whose winners receive automatic qualifying positions, with fees paid, into a corresponding race at the 40th edition of America’s end-of-season championships, held this year on November 3-4 at Santa Anita.
As part of the benefits of the Challenge Series, Breeders’ Cup will also provide a travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America. A total of 39 international races are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge for 2023, among them races in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Peru, and South Africa.
• Visit the Breeders’ Cup website and the Breeders’ Cup Challenge web page
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