Nathaniel celebrated a new Gr.1 winner today with a classy and brave victory by Poptronic in the Gr.1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot. 

Trained by Karl Burke for owner/breeders David and Yvonne Blunt, the four-year-old filly was given an excellent ride by Sam James making virtually all and showing her versatility ground-wise and tenacity to hold off the market leaders. 

Jockey Sam James said: “It didn’t go right the last day in France [in the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu] and I owe a lot to Karl to put me on these horses. Poptronic is a good mover and you’d think that softer ground wouldn’t help, but all she does is gallop and she is tough. I didn’t want to try and fight her today and I was able to get a breather into her when I needed to.”

Owner/breeders David and Yvonne Blunt were understandably delighted, David Blunt said: “It was a once in a lifetime for us! We’re against big battalions today and the small owner-breeder comes up trumps, which is unbelievable.

“Poptronic is as tough as old rope. She has been a bit unfortunate in a couple of her previous races, we felt anyway, and I didn’t think she deserved to be the outsider that she was and she’s proved us all right in that regard. To have a runner in a Gr.1, never mind the breeder of a Gr.1, is amazing.”

Earlier this season Poptronic gamely won the Gr.2 bet365 Lancashire Oaks and finished third in the Gr.2 Middleton Fillies’ Stakes and the Gr.3 The Pinnacle Stakes, having won the Gr.3 Hoppings Stakes last year. She has now won or been placed in six Group or Stakes races.

Poptronic is the first foal out of Alpine Dream (Dream Ahead), a half-sister to this year’s Listed Premio Eupili winner Royal Grey (Havana Grey), and a daughter of Gr.2 Lowther Stakes heroine Infamous Angel.

She is yet another exciting four-year-old for her sire Nathaniel, with Desert Crown from the same crop winning the Classic Gr.1 Epsom Derby last year, and she is his second new Gr.1 winner this year.  

Nathaniel is now the sire of 8 Gr.1 winners and 30 Gr.1/Gr.2 winners or performers, with 14 Group/Stakes winners or performers in 2023 alone.