Newmarket Listed victories for Star Of Mystery & Kemari

Exciting juvenile Star Of Mystery (pictured) continued a bright start to her career with an impressive win in the Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Stakes, as Kemari also secured Listed honours on the same Newmarket card on Saturday, 1 July.

Kodiac filly Star Of Mystery, who was stepping up in class after scoring by 11 lengths at Haydock Park on her previous start, was prominent throughout the six-furlong contest and took up the running at the halfway point.

The half-sister to G1 winners Althiqa and Mysterious Night powered clear approaching the final furlong and was eased close home by William Buick for a four-length success over Cry Fiction.

Her trainer Charlie Appleby said: “We know Star Of Mystery’s family but she is a different model compared to some of her predecessors – it’s a speed-on-speed breeding as she is by Kodiac. She is a strong, neat-set model, who shows a lot of natural pace.

“We came here confident on the back of what she achieved at Haydock, but also her development afterwards. The likelihood is that we will work back from the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes and try and get another run into her beforehand.”

Kemari had filled the runner-up spot behind Rebel’s Romance in the 2022 renewal of the Listed Fred Archer Stakes and the Dubawi five-year-old went one place better as he gamely saw off Outbox and New London.

Having tracked Outbox for the first half of the race, Kemari moved up to press for the lead with six furlongs left and stayed on to take up the running under James Doyle entering the final furlong.

Outbox continued to rally, with the Charlie Appleby-trained Kemari asserting in the final strides to prevail by half a length. Stable-mate New London stayed on well in the closing stages to finish a neck further back in third on his first start of the season.

James Doyle said: “Kemari is a little star. He did a lot of the donkey work in this race last year, so it’s nice for him to have his day in the sun. I’m sure New London will come on for the run – it’s nice to see him back on the track and he ran a nice race.”