Nassau Stakes Runners 2025 - Whirl Aims For O'Brien Repeat In Final Glorious Goodwood Group 1

Seven fillies and mares have been confirmed at the six-day stage for the Group 1 Nassau Stakes, the final top level race of Glorious Goodwood on Thursday, 31st July. The 1m2f contest is confined to female horses and was won in 2024 by Opera Singer for Aidan O’Brien.

There will be no defence of her title from that filly, but following in her footsteps as a three-year-old trained by O’Brien is Whirl. The Ballydoyle representative stepped forward hugely from her seasonal debut to run out an easy winner of the Musidora Stakes at York before being beaten a neck in the Oaks at Epsom. She has subsequently become a first-time Group 1 scorer when landing the Pretty Polly Stakes over this distance at the Curragh.

The lead hope among the older fillies and mares is See The Fire. Andrew Balding’s four-year-old was narrowly defeated in this last season, but has come alive this term, rampantly running away with the Group 2 Middleton Fillies Stakes by 12 lengths at York, then finishing a highly respectable third in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes against the boys at Royal Ascot.

Surprise Coronation Stakes winner Cercene is another three-year-old in the line-up. Although a shock heroine of that 1m Group 1 at Royal Ascot, the form of that victory is solid and Joseph Murphy looks set to step her up in trip, which should suit her on pedigree.

Whirl’s stablemate Bedtime Story was a brilliant juvenile but is yet to quite find that form at three. Nevertheless, she is talented enough to have a say while former Classic winner Fallen Angel will also step up to 1m2f here; she was third in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes over 1m last time out.

Running Lion could be a runner for the Gosdens, who won this with Nashwa in 2022, while there is European interest courtesy of Dare To Dream, though she will likely be an outsider for French trainer Gavin Hernon.

2025 Nassau Stakes Runners