Churchill’s Heavens Gate Digs Deep to Claim Stakes Breakthrough at The Curragh

[Wandering Eyes]

Coolmore's Heavens Gate (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}–Itqaan, by Danzig), with a half-dozen prior outings under her belt, was the most experienced of nine contenders entering Sunday's G3 Weld Park Stakes at the Curragh and her ringcraft was a telling factor  in the seven-furlong contest as she delivered a display of power to claim a career high.

She had previously hit the board in the G3 Albany Stakes and G2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes and annexed a valuable pot at Naas in her penultimate start before running fourth in York's G2 Lowther Stakes last time. Sent postward as the 11-8 favourite here, Heavens Gate settled into smooth rhythm, tracking the leaders in fifth, through the early fractions. Shaken up in traffic passing the quarter-mile marker, she charted a passage to the front approaching the furlong pole and came under a late drive to withstand the ominous late threat of Fiery Lucy (GB) (Without Parole {GB}) by a neck. Useful yardstick Barnavara (Ire) (Calyx {GB}) finished 1 1/4 lengths adrift in third.

Pedigree Notes
Heavens Gate, who becomes the 15th pattern-race winner for her sire, is the latest of 10 foals and one of six scorers produced by a winning full-sister to G3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes victor and G1 Champion Stakes-placed sire Mawatheeq (Danzig). The February-foaled bay's dam Itqaan (Danzig) is also a half-sister to G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Coronation Stakes heroine Ghanaati (Giant's Causeway) and stakes-winning G1 Oaks third Runoush (Rahy). Heavens Gate third dam is multiple Group-winning matriarch Height Of Fashion (Fr) (Bustino {GB}).

 

Heavens Gate (Churchill) claims black-type success for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore to win the Group 3 Weld Park Stakes @curraghrace

A treble on the card for team @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/6gkevCsrrL

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) September 29, 2024

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