Shimmering Dawn powered down the outside to land the chelmsfordcityracecourse.com Fillies' Conditions Stakes tonight, Thursday, February 18.
The imposing five-year-old is now qualified for the Ladbrokes All-Weather Fillies & Mares Championship over the same distance of seven furlongs at Lingfield Park on Finals Day, Good Friday, April 2.
Sent off the 15/8 favourite, Shimmering Dawn was settled in last of the six runners by Tom Eaves as no more than an even pace was set by Amber Island (David Loughnane/Rossa Ryan).
With the field tightly bunched, Shimmering Drawn manoeuvred widest of all in the straight and made good ground to challenge inside the final furlong. She readily assumed command from Amber Island and went on to score by three parts of a length. Quickstep Lady (Andrew Balding/David Probert) was a neck further back in third.
The winner has now won five of her 12 starts on the All-Weather, with four of those successes coming on the Polytrack at Chelmsford City.
Trainer James Tate said: “It all went very smoothly. They did not go fast but I thought Tom gave Shimmering Dawn an ice-cool ride and, despite having to come wide in the straight, she picked them up well.
“We might stop off at Wolverhampton in the Lady Wulfruna Stakes on March 13 before heading on to Finals Day. She is quite highly rated with a mark of 97 but hasn’t got any black type yet, so although the Lady Wulfruna is against the colts, I think we will have a go.”
