Chantilly cream can rise to the top after her break

CHANTILLY Lace can get off the mark for the season when she drops to Listed level for the Fortune Stakes at Sandown.

- By ANITA CHAMBERS

Winner of her only juvenile start, trainer Ralph Beckett felt the Lope De Vega filly deserved a crack in Classic company on her seasonal bow and while she was sent off a 25-1 shot, she certainly outran her odds in finishing fifth, beaten just two and a half lengths.

She was then kept to Group One level for the Coronation Stakes and again acquitted herself well in finishing a three-and-a-half-length fifth but she could not make the most of a Group Three outing back at Ascot in July.

Entirely different tactics were employed that day as she made the running and she was hardly beaten far - just half a length - so it may suit her to return to a more waiting ride, with soft ground in Esher expected to suit given her maiden win came on autumn heavy.