By Tom Frary
Leading from the front in Sunday's G2 Cygames Prix de Malleret at ParisLongchamp, Qilin Queen (Pinatubo) put another feather in the cap of TBT Racing with a game career-best. Hunted down all the way to the line by the hot favourite Sunly (Night Of Thunder), the 6-1 shot who had beaten only one rival in the Oaks clung on to score by a short neck under Kieran Shoemark.
“We went to Epsom with big hopes, but were so disappointed and felt it was the soft ground,” trainer Ed Walker said. “We knew it would be quick here and she stays well, so we were confident she would stay the mile and a half. She's in the Yorkshire Oaks, so we'll try and get the Group One now.”
Runner-up to the smart Frankel colt Luther in the Listed Ascendant Stakes in September, Qilin Queen had been in the wake of Shadwell's impressive Falakeyah when third in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket before making all in Newbury's Listed Childwickbury Stud Fillies' Trial in May. Never a factor in the Oaks, she had everything in favour while Sunly was asked a big question from so far off a controlled pace.
Favourite beaten!
Sunly just can't get past Qilin Queen, who makes almost all to land the G2 Prix de Malleret for Kieran Shoemark and @edwalkerracing… pic.twitter.com/85KGyhQQyf
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 13, 2025
Pedigree Notes
Qilin Queen, who becomes the first Group winner for her second-crop sire, is a half to the Australian Stakes winner Monbaher (Muhaarar) with the dam Seagull (Sea The Stars) being out of the notable broodmare Caumshinaun (Indian Ridge). Responsible for the G1 Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Nightime (Galileo), who in turn produced Dubawi's four-times Group One-winning sire Ghaiyyath and the GI Man O'War Stakes heroine and Stakes producer Zhukova (Fastnet Rock), she is also the second dam of the Group winner King Of Koji (Lord Kanaloa) and Harajuku (Deep Impact). Her yearling filly is by Naval Crown.
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