Group 2 win for Friendly Soul

George Strawbridge's homebred Kingman filly, Friendly Soul, stepped up from her Gr.3 Valiant Stakes win in July to take the Gr.2 Prix de la Nonette at Deauville on Saturday.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 19th August 2024, by Tom Frary:

Firmly back on track following her blip in the Musidora, George Strawbridge's Friendly Soul backed up her latest win in Ascot's Gr.3 Valiant Stakes with another in Sunday's Gr.2 Prix de la Nonette at Deauville. Returning to the 10-furlong trip over which she had impressed in Newmarket's Listed Pretty Polly Stakes and disappointed in York's Oaks trial in May, the John and Thady Gosden-trained homebred was sent to the front soon after the start by Kieran Shoemark as she had been over a mile last month.

There to be shot at in the straight, the even-money favourite kept finding to hold her rivals comfortably at bay and score by a length from Birthe, with Candala (Frankel) a length and a half further back in third.

"She's a very good filly with only one blot on her copybook, but we rode her wrong that day and she likes to use her stride and doesn't like being restrained," John Gosden said. "That tacky ground is not to her liking, but she's done it well. The Opera if the ground is like last year would be an option, but not if it is tres souple."