‘You don’t see finishes like that too often’ - City Light filly Naomis dazzles in Saratoga

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French recruit Naomis came with a dazzling last-to-first effort to take the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga on her US debut.

The City Light filly is a homebred for trainer Alex Pantall and his wife Yvette who has made speedy improvement, winning a Listed race at Bordeaux in the spring in the Pantall colours before the combination of Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, Thirty Year Racing and Michael Caruso bought into her.

Naomis landed the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham on her final start in France at the end of May and has now switched to Chad Brown’s all-conquering stable. The three-year-old had plenty of ground to make up with just a furlong to go but swept right by under Flavien Prat to win handily.

"She shipped over to our barn and we momentarily thought about the Lake George [August 1] with her, I was on the fence, and she spiked a temperature and made my mind up for me that way,” Brown said.

“So, we pointed her to this and obviously her form going a mile in her last two was good, so it made a lot of sense to start her at a mile. She had trained like she could be a potential Queen Elizabeth horse [Grade 1 on October 10 at Keeneland] and it sure looks like that off one run."

Dubb added: "Off of those fractions, I thought the race was hopelessly lost when I saw 25 [25.02] and 49 [49.44] go up on this turf course. She’s a very classy filly.

“We bought her and kept her in Europe for a race, it was a Group 2 and she won it there. So, we knew she was of this level. She’s special. You don’t see finishes like that too often.”

Prat said the event had not been straightforward. "I knew there was going to be a lack of pace, but I thought she was good enough to overcome that,” he said.

“When we turned for home, she took a bad step. She slipped and I thought it was going to cost me, but she recovered quickly and showed she was talented. Even with the slow pace, I thought she was good enough to overcome that, and she proved it."

Naomis is one of four Group winners for City Light, the smart sprinter based at Haras d’Etreham for €10,000 this year. Pantall bought her dam, the unraced Lope De Vega mare Biting, when she was carrying Naomis and paid just €14,000 at Arqana’s breeding stock sale. 

She descends from Kirsten Rausing’s signature family of Alborada, Alpinista et al and the Pantalls have two colts out of her to come, a yearling by Sealiway and a foal by Intello.

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