Ten two-year-old fillies are declared for the 2026 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket, with Group-race winners, an unbeaten Juddmonte filly and several lightly raced prospects coming together over seven furlongs on the Rowley Mile.
Here is how the field arrives at Friday’s Group 2, the form lines connecting the runners and the wider context around one of Newmarket’s established autumn races for juvenile fillies
What is the Rockfel Stakes?
The Rockfel Stakes is a Group 2 contest for two-year-old fillies, staged over seven furlongs on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile.
The 2026 renewal takes place at 2:25pm on Friday 25 September as part of the second day of the Cambridgeshire Meeting. The race carries £125,000 in total prize-money, with £70,887.50 awarded to the winner.
It occupies an important position in the autumn programme. Some of the runners arrive after competing over six furlongs during the summer, others have already established themselves at seven, and several will be attempting to strengthen their Pattern-race records before the juvenile season draws to a close.
Victory provides Group 2 black type and places a filly among the notable late-season performers of her generation.
Race information, checked Wednesday 23 September: the latest published going for Newmarket is good, good to firm in places, with a GoingStick reading of 7.8. Conditions can change before Friday.
The Rockfel Stakes field at a glance
The field has reduced to ten declared runners, with ten different training operations represented. The current racecard also has jockey bookings for each filly.
Awaiting Racecard…
The headline storyline: Group-race form meets unbeaten potential
Two fillies arrive having already won at Group 3 level over Friday’s distance.
Light Of Dawn has accumulated four starts and has yet to finish outside the first three. After winning on debut at Carlisle, she finished third in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and again occupied third in Group company at Deauville.
Her most recent run brought a first Pattern success when she won the seven-furlong Prestige Stakes at Goodwood on August 30. Siena Storm and Redline were also in that race, creating one of the clearest direct form lines into the Rockfel.
Sugar Yes Please also arrives after a Group 3 success. Fourth on debut, she won her second start before taking the Sweet Solera Stakes over seven furlongs on Newmarket’s July Course on August 8.
She therefore has two wins from three starts and is the highest-rated filly on the current racecard at 102, narrowly ahead of Light Of Dawn on 101. Those figures describe what the pair have achieved so far rather than what they may do on Friday.
The contrasting profile is supplied by Spirited Gesture.
John and Thady Gosden’s Kingman filly is the only unbeaten runner in the field, having won both of her starts over approximately seven furlongs. She scored on Newmarket’s July Course on debut before winning by three lengths at Newcastle.
Friday will be her first appearance in Pattern company, putting an unbeaten novice-race record alongside fillies with more established Group form.
How the field arrives at Newmarket
Established winners
Five members of the field have already won at least twice.
Light Of Dawn and Sugar Yes Please have converted that record into Group 3 victories, while Spirited Gesture has won both starts.
Redline also began her career with successive victories, winning at Carlisle and then over seven furlongs at Ayr. Her first Group-race appearance came in the Prestige Stakes, where she finished eighth behind Light Of Dawn.
Speed Of Sound has had more racing than any other filly in the field. Her five appearances have produced two wins, two thirds and a second. Her latest success came in a fillies’ nursery at Doncaster on September 10, when she defeated Angel In My Heart by a length and three-quarters.
The lightly raced group
Three fillies arrive with only two career starts.
Miss Miniver finished second on debut before winning a seven-furlong Salisbury maiden on September 3. The Rockfel therefore takes her directly from maiden company into a Group 2.
Pensando A Te has followed a similar route. She was beaten narrowly by Speed Of Sound on debut at Yarmouth before winning a six-furlong Ascot maiden by a length and three-quarters on September 5. Friday will be both her first Pattern-race appearance and her first start over seven furlongs.
Sea Venture also has two starts but brings a different form line. She won by three lengths on debut at Haydock before finishing sixth in the Listed Chesham Stakes over seven furlongs at Royal Ascot.
She has not raced since June 18, giving her the longest break between runs of any member of the Rockfel field.
Fillies arriving from Group company
Friday is not a first encounter with Pattern opposition for several others.
Ruby Moon returns only six days after finishing second to Silent Beauty in the Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes at Ayr. That race was staged over six furlongs on heavy ground, whereas the Rockfel extends her to seven for the first time.
Siena Storm has already won over a mile and most recently finished fourth to Light Of Dawn in the Prestige Stakes over seven furlongs.
That Goodwood race is responsible for three of Friday’s runners: Light Of Dawn finished first, Siena Storm fourth and Redline eighth.
Three form threads that explain the Rockfel field
1. The Prestige Stakes rematch
The clearest shared piece of form comes from Goodwood on August 30.
Light Of Dawn won the Group 3 Prestige Stakes by a length and a quarter, with Siena Storm three lengths behind the winner in fourth and Redline eleven and a half lengths away in eighth.
The circumstances will not be identical at Newmarket. Goodwood was run on soft ground, while Newmarket is currently reported as good, good to firm in places. But the race gives readers an existing comparison between three members of Friday’s field.
2. Speed Of Sound and Pensando A Te meet again
Speed Of Sound and Pensando A Te have already finished first and second in the same race.
They met in a six-furlong Yarmouth maiden on August 5, when Speed Of Sound beat Pensando A Te by a head.
Both have subsequently won. Pensando A Te scored at Ascot, while Speed Of Sound followed her Yarmouth victory with a third-place finish at York and then another success at Doncaster.
Their next meeting now comes over a longer distance and in Group 2 company.
3. Different routes into the same race
There is no single path into this year’s Rockfel.
Light Of Dawn and Sugar Yes Please arrive as Group 3 winners. Ruby Moon ran in a Group 3 only six days before Newmarket. Sea Venture’s latest appearance was in Listed company at Royal Ascot.
At the other end of the experience scale, Spirited Gesture has raced only in novice company, while Miss Miniver and Pensando A Te have most recently been winning maidens.
It gives the Rockfel a field in which established juvenile form meets fillies whose level is still being established.
What the racecard data tells us
The official ratings underline the difference in experience between the runners.
Sugar Yes Please is currently rated 102 and Light Of Dawn 101 after their Group 3 victories, while Spirited Gesture is rated 88 despite being unbeaten. That does not represent a judgement on which filly will perform better on Friday; it reflects the level of form each has put on record so far.
Experience varies just as widely. Speed Of Sound has raced five times, Light Of Dawn and Ruby Moon four times each, while Miss Miniver, Pensando A Te, Sea Venture and Spirited Gesture have had only two starts.
There is also a distance question running through the field. Light Of Dawn, Miss Miniver, Redline, Sea Venture, Siena Storm, Spirited Gesture and Sugar Yes Please have already raced over seven furlongs. Pensando A Te and Ruby Moon step up from six, while Speed Of Sound’s latest victory came over six and a half furlongs.
Those statistics are useful because they explain the different stages of development represented in the race rather than attempting to turn the field into a numerical hierarchy.
Newmarket and the Rockfel’s recent history
The Rockfel is staged on the Rowley Mile, Newmarket’s spring and autumn racecourse.
The track possesses a straight measuring up to a mile and two furlongs, with undulations before the runners encounter the famous Dip and an uphill finish. Friday’s seven-furlong race therefore takes place entirely on the straight course.
The race has long sat within Newmarket’s programme of important autumn contests for two-year-olds and provides another opportunity for developing fillies to establish Pattern form before their three-year-old campaigns.
Last year’s renewal was won by Zanthos, who defeated The Prettiest Star by half a length, with Moon Target three lengths further back in third. Ten fillies ran, the same number currently declared for the 2026 race.
The subsequent progress of runner-up The Prettiest Star demonstrates the type of horses the race can bring together. She returned to Newmarket the following spring and finished fourth of 19 in the 2026 1,000 Guineas, before continuing in Group company through the season. She was most recently third in the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes at Doncaster on September 13.
Zanthos herself had been intended for the 1,000 Guineas after her Rockfel victory but was ruled out of the Classic in the spring.
What remains to be confirmed
Status as of Wednesday 23 September 2026
- Declared runners: 10
- Jockey bookings: currently confirmed for all ten runners
- Published going: Good, good to firm in places
- GoingStick: 7.8
- Race time: 2:25pm, Friday 25 September
- Still subject to change: the final going, any withdrawals or non-runners, equipment changes and other race-day updates