Amanzi Yimpilo completes fine weekend for No Nay Never at Santa Anita

A good weekend for No Nay Never was completed at Santa Anita on Saturday night as Amanzi Yimpilo made it a transatlantic stakes race double for the Coolmore sire.

At Newmarket during the afternoon, No Nay Never had been responsible for a third Group 1 winner of his stallion career as Alcohol Free blitzed her way to victory in the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes and Amanzi Yimpilo, another Irish-bred member of the same crop, added to the haul in the black type Speakeasy Stakes.

Bred by Longueville Bloodstock and Matrix Bloodstock, the filly was purchased by trainer Wesley Ward at Keeneland last year as a $300,000 yearling offered by Hunter Valley Farm.

Amanzi Yimpilo won a maiden at Gulfstream in June and had been stepped up in class to finish third in the Bolton Landing Stakes at Saratoga.

She stalked the early pace under Luis Saez and was in control in the closing stages to win a race which has 'win and you’re in' status for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

"She was pretty nervous behind the gate, we had a little trouble, but I knew she was ready," said Saez. "I could feel the power. She just broke very well and sat in a great spot which was the spot I was (hoping) to be in. When we came down the stretch, she fought. She was a fighter and we got there."

Blake Heap, assistant to Ward, added: "It’s onto the Breeders’ Cup we hope!"

Amanzi Yimpilo is the second foal of Galileo mare Honourably, who was trained by Charles O’Brien. He also won two races with her first foal, Rain Or Shine, in Ireland this year.

No Nay Never, meanwhile, is now up to 26 international stakes scorers. He stood for €175,000 this year, ten times the fee at which the dams of those fillies were covered.

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