Bargain buy Anthelia primed for Cheveley Park challenge

Anthelia will bid to give her remarkable rags to riches story a fairytale finish for the season in the Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.

Bought for the bargain basement price of just £6,000 as a yearling, the Supremacy filly has enjoyed a fantastic juvenile campaign for trainer Rod Millman and owners Middleham Park Racing, winning five of her seven competitive starts and accruing well over £200,000 in prize-money.

Her record includes notable victories in the Listed National Stakes at Sandown, the Weatherbys Super Sprint at Newbury and the Group Three Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes at Salisbury – and while Millman acknowledges she faces a tougher task at Group One level this weekend, he is happy to roll the dice.

“She’s had a very good season apart from the York race (fifth in Harry’s Half Million), I don’t know what happened there but she was back on-song again at Salisbury, obviously,” he said.

“She goes to Newmarket in good form. She’s probably better with a little bit of give in the ground and it’s drying out a bit, which is a shame, but she has run well on good ground.

“Obviously it’s a very good race, but she’s worth a crack at it.”

Despite Anthelia’s relatively low purchase price, Anthelia’s rapid rise through the ranks has not taken her trainer entirely by surprise.

He added: “I know she was only £6,000, she didn’t look like a £6,000 horse when I bought her.

“I was just very lucky to get her, I think. She was just one that slipped under the radar.

“I think there’s been stronger Cheveley Parks than this. There are obviously some very good fillies in it, but they’ve all been beaten and our filly is certainly worth her chance.”