Havana Anna lifts breeders’ spirits with Goffs Lacken Stakes win

Havana Anna’s head victory in the Goffs Lacken Stakes gave Charlie Wyatt and Simon Sweeting something far more valuable than another black-type line: it gave their operation a live, current-season answer after the shock of Gewan’s fatal injury at Kempton in April.

The timing mattered. Gewan, the 2025 Dewhurst Stakes winner and European champion juvenile colt, had been the family’s Classic hope before he died in a racecourse gallop on April 9, 2026, taking away the colt around whom so many spring expectations had been built. Havana Anna’s win at Naas did not erase that loss, but it did restore momentum for the Dukes Stud and Overbury Stallions partnership and put their breeding programme back in the conversation for buyers, breeders and race planners.

She earned it the hard way. Ridden by Gavin Ryan and trained by Donnacha O’Brien, Havana Anna landed the Group 3 for three-year-olds over 5f 205y by a head, taking €42,000 from a €70,000 purse. She also showed that Naas suits her perfectly, completing a third course victory at the County Kildare track. The odds-on favourite Charles Darwin was beaten two furlongs out, which makes the result more than a routine trial-race success. It was a proper statement against a horse expected to control the race.

The form already said Havana Anna could run at a higher level. She had finished runner-up to True Love in the 2025 Cheveley Park Stakes, beaten by three-quarters of a length, before True Love went on to win the 1,000 Guineas in 2026. Havana Anna had also won the Listed Marwell Stakes and placed in the Prix d’Arenberg, with her last start before Naas coming in the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. That profile made the Lacken win feel less like a surprise than a confirmation that she remains a serious sprint filly with speed to burn.

The bigger prize now is Royal Ascot. The Lacken has become one of Naas’s most useful pointers to the Commonwealth Cup, and six of the last 12 winners have gone there next time out, with one winning the race. For a partnership built through patient mare buying rather than splashy one-off punts, Havana Anna’s latest step forward matters because it keeps the operation visible at the level where reputations, residual value and race plans are decided.