Alpine Star Looking To Emulate Half Sister Alpha Centauri

The Jessica Harrington trained Alpine Star could follow in the footsteps of her half-sister Alpha Centauri after landing the Group One Coronation Stakes under a superb ride by Frankie Dettori.

The horses owned by the Niarchos family, who also owned the superstar Alpha Centauri may now seek to campaign the filly in a similar way as to her half-sister who went on to land three Group Ones in a row in England and France.

Alpine Star had been off the track since landing the Debutante Stakes at the Curragh last summer, but she made a great start to life as a three year old when seeing off some talented fillies to land the Coronation Stakes at Ascot.

(Credit AtTheRaces) Alan Cooper, racing manager for the owners, said: “I thought it was a tremendous training performance from Jessie, considering the filly hadn’t been seen in public since August.

“She’s clearly a very good filly, Frankie gave her an excellent ride and it’s obviously great for the family – I believe there haven’t been two winners of the Coronation Stakes out of the same mare since the 1950s, which is quite something.

“We haven’t made any firm plans just yet. We’ll wait a day or two, take our time and see what Jessie thinks – the Pattern book is there, so we just need to decide which race we go for.”

Another Niarchos Family and Jessica Harrington prodigy is Group One winner Albigna who made a less than successful return in the Irish 1000 Guineas at the Curragh when finishing a tame sixth.

Cooper added: “There is Albigna to consider as well, of course. She’s absolutely fine now after being a bit sore after the Irish Guineas because of the fast ground.

“We’ll be looking at similar races for the pair of them and we’ll want to split them up. We’ll just have to assess the races and the ground and everything else.

“Frankie said on Saturday that he thinks Alpine Star would stay a mile and a quarter, but nothing is set in stone.”