Kalpana returned successfully and is already dreaming of making history at Royal Ascot and on Champions Day
- Turf Diario
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Juddmonte’s outstanding mare once again defeated the males in the Aston Park Stakes (G3), confirming that at five years old she still retains all of her class and elite-level ambition
NEWBURY, England (Special to Turf Diario).- The great Kalpana is back. And she returned exactly the way Europe remembers her: winning, fighting, and proving that she still belongs among the elite.
The dual heroine of the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1) launched her 2026 campaign with a valuable victory in the Sky Sports Racing Aston Park Stakes (G3) at Newbury, once again capturing the race she had already won last season while confirming that her ambition to further enhance her legacy remains entirely intact.
Carrying the colors of Juddmonte and conceding the additional weight assigned to a Group 1 winner, the daughter of Study Of Man had to dig deep to hold off the late rally of multiple Group stakes-placed West Wind Blows (Teofilo)by just a neck after a demanding finish over 2400 meters.
Trained by Andrew Balding, Kalpana once again displayed the blend of class, stamina, and courage that established her as one of Europe’s leading staying mares last season.
“She was probably just feeling the lack of fitness a bit in the final stages, but she showed she still has the hunger and desire to compete,” Balding said afterward. “When you decide to keep a mare in training at five, you always hope she still wants to do it. And she clearly does.”
The trainer also acknowledged that this comeback assignment represented a far softer challenge than the ambitious route they took one year earlier.
“Last season we started by taking on the males in a Group 1 in Ireland, and that was a very tough task,” Balding explained. “This was much calmer waters. She was carrying a little extra condition and had been away for a long time, so we’re delighted.”
Kalpana had concluded a superb 2025 season by firmly establishing herself among Europe’s best mares through consecutive victories in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.
Now, her major goal will be attempting something no mare has ever achieved: winning that race three consecutive times.
“That’s very clearly the big target for the year,” Balding admitted. “I don’t think any horse has ever won three straight races on British Champions Day.”
Before October, however, several major assignments await.
The trainer confirmed that the likely next stop will be Royal Ascot, where options include either the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (G1) or the Hardwicke Stakes (G2), depending largely on ground conditions.
“If the ground turned very soft, maybe the Prince of Wales’s becomes more attractive,” Balding noted.
Further down the road looms the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1), the race in which Kalpana finished second in 2025 and where she could once again take on Europe’s best middle-distance runners.
Ridden by Colin Keane, Kalpana broke alertly but was quickly settled at the rear of the compact field through the opening 800 meters.
From there she gradually improved entering the straight, moving powerfully past West Wind Blows approaching the final 400 meters. Yet the veteran rival rallied strongly once again late and forced the favorite to battle all the way to the wire.
In the end, Kalpana managed to preserve her advantage in a performance that may have been more workmanlike than spectacular, though still extremely valuable for a mare returning from a lengthy layoff.
The top two finished no fewer than 11 lengths clear of the third-place finisher, confirming that Kalpana remains fully relevant at the highest level.
And for Juddmonte and Andrew Balding, that almost means as much as another Group 1 victory.
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