Win And You’re In: See The Fire Back Against Mares In Nassau originally appeared on Paulick Report.

J C Smith’s See The Fire will aim for a breakthrough Group 1 success when she lines up for the Visit Qatar Nassau Stakes (G1) at the Qatar Goodwood Festival on July 31 – a key fixture in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.

The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series is an international series of 93 stakes races in 15 countries whose winners receive automatic starting positions and fees paid into a corresponding race at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, scheduled to be held Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, California.

Trainer Andrew Balding spoke highly of the 4-year-old filly, who finished runner-up to Opera Singer in last year’s 1 1/4-mile race: “She’s a beautifully bred filly, by Sea The Stars, who won a Juddmonte International, out of Arabian Queen, who also won a Juddmonte International.

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“She’s always looked a very smart filly. As a 3-year-old, we didn’t really see the best of her until we got to the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, where she was narrowly beaten. She then went on and won the Strensall Stakes against older colts and all comers at York.”

The filly was last seen finishing third behind Ombudsman in the June 18 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.

Balding said: “We thought she ran a super race at Ascot, against the boys, in the Prince of Wales’s. She’s had a little break since then with the view to prepare her for the Nassau again, and hopefully going one better than we did last year.

“The Prince of Wales’s this year was run at a ferocious gallop, and it suited the closers. In hindsight, we rode her to sit in behind Los Angeles, and focus on beating him, which left us vulnerable at the end of the race. Having said that, they’re top-class horses and we might not have beaten them whatever we’d done. It was still a career best performance, and she’ll have an easier time, you’d have thought, against her own sex, in the Nassau. It’s never easy at Group 1 level, but she’s going there in great shape.”

The Nassau Stakes serves as a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), granting the winner an automatic fees-paid berth into the $2 million contest at Del Mar in November.

Balding has yet to saddle a winner at the Breeders’ Cup but is a big supporter.

“The Win and You’re In incentive is very important for any owner, it certainly pushes the Breeders’ Cup to the forefront of your priorities,” he said. “The Breeders’ Cup is a hugely important meeting worldwide, but it does come at the end of a long season so it really depends on how she is training at the end of the season, and what happens between now and then, but it’s very much on the shortlist for our autumn campaign.

“I remember my dad taking a horse called Selkirk, who was the Champion miler in England, to run at Gulfstream Park (in the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Mile). I remember the excitement and buzz around the yard for the three weeks leading up to it. It would be lovely to think one day we would have a horse good enough to be competitive in a Breeders’ Cup race, we’ve had a couple of runners so far but no joy, so it’s something very much that we are striving to achieve.”

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.