By Tom Frary
Exposed on the wing the whole way through Sunday's G2 Lanwades Stud Stakes, Porta Fortuna had good reason to cave in on her seasonal return but that is just not her style. Defying any rustiness and a penalty in The Curragh's mile contest, last year's G1 Coronation Stakes, G1 Falmouth Stakes and G1 Matron Stakes heroine was delivered passing two out by Ryan Moore to take control and justify 5-4 favouritism by half a length from Gleneagles' One Look.
Moore was truly in the zone on Sunday and in no mood to surrender any of the quartet of features in which he was riding the best horse. “She's a high-class filly, she's very straightforward and an absolute pleasure to ride,” he said. “She was on the outside and I probably had to move up a little bit earlier than ideal, but she took me there going well and then was a little bit idle inside the last 100 yards.”
Porta Fortuna is BACK! 💥
Group Two honours in the @Lanwades Stud Stakes for the talented filly, partnered by Ryan Moore for Donnacha O'Brien 👏@curraghrace pic.twitter.com/YFIpnI2CGC
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 25, 2025
Unsurprisingly, Porta Fortuna was another on the card to set a race-record time in this race which is registered as the Ridgewood Pearl, completing her comeback task in 1:35.11 which knocks the previous best of 1:37.06 set by Beshaayir in 2019 into next week. She is due to take part in a talent-stacked and intriguing renewal of Royal Ascot's G1 Queen Anne Stakes according to Donnacha O'Brien.
“It was a lovely starting point for her and she did things right, relaxed nicely and quickened up well,” he said. “Ryan said she got a little bit idle in front, which is beautiful and should set her up nicely for Ascot. The Queen Anne seems likely–we have the option of the [G2] Duke Of Cambridge, but I think when she won so nicely and she's training so good and is happy and healthy we have to look at the Queen Anne.”
Runner-up in the 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and a disappointing eighth in Del Mar's GI Breeders' Cup Mile in November, Porta Fortuna has unfinished business in the Championships for Medallion, Weston, Reeves and Fowler. “It was a target last year and the year before, so it seems like an obvious possibility at the end of the year,” O'Brien added. “We'll get through the rest of the year and see how she is and hatch a plan then.”
Pedigree Notes
Laying claim to being the best sired so far by Caravaggio, Porta Fortuna is the first foal out of Holy Roman Emperor's Too Precious who is a full-sister to the triple Australian Group 2 winner and G1 Australian Cup runner-up Numerian and the G3 Prix Francois Boutin third Montesilvano. From the family of the G1 St Leger-winning sire Milan and the Derby and Irish Derby hero and prolific sire Kahyasi, her once-raced 3-year-old daughter of Ten Sovereigns named Sorella Carina also races for these connections in partnership with Coolmore. Her 2-year-old filly by Sottsass is named Heat Emission.
Sunday, Curragh, Ireland
LANWADES STUD STAKES (REGISTERED AS THE RIDGEWOOD PEARL STAKES)-G2, €120,000, Curragh, 5-25, 4yo/up, f/m, 8fT, 1:35.11, gd.
1–PORTA FORTUNA (IRE), 131, f, 4, by Caravaggio
1st Dam: Too Precious (Ire), by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire)
2nd Dam: Delicate Charm (Ire), by High Chaparral (Ire)
3rd Dam: Kantikoy (GB), by Alzao
O-Medallion Racing 2020 LLC, Steven I. Weston, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing & Barry Fowler; B-Whisperview Trading Ltd; T-Donnacha O'Brien; J-Ryan Moore. €72,000. Lifetime Record: MG1SW-Eng, G1SW-Ire, GISP-US, 13-8-3-1, $1,743,422. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–One Look (Ire), 128, f, 4, Gleneagles (Ire)–Holy Salt (GB), by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire). (€40,000 RNA Wlg '21 GOFNO1; €65,000 Ylg '22 GOFOR). O-Connolly Racing Syndicate; B-Tullpark Ltd; T-Paddy Twomey. €24,000.
3–Naomi Lapaglia (GB), 128, m, 5, Awtaad (Ire)–Hawaafez (GB), by Nayef. (2,000gns Ylg '21 TADEY; 110,000gns 2yo '22 TATBRG; 475,000gns HRA '24 TATMA). O-Eleanora Kennedy; B-Shadwell Estate Company Limited; T-Ger Lyons. €12,000.
Margins: HF, 2 1/4, HD. Odds: 1.25, 3.00, 10.00.
Also Ran: Vera's Secret (Ire), Jancis (Ire), Azada (Ire), Rubies From Burma, Birthe (Ire).
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