Laura Pearson lands first British group win with Sparks Fly at Epsom

Laura Pearson turned Epsom’s most punishing memory into the biggest British win of her career on Saturday, guiding Sparks Fly to a runaway victory in the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes over 1 mile 113 yards on good to soft ground. The six-runner field was reduced to a tactical test, and Pearson made it one that mattered: Sparks Fly powered home 8 1/2 lengths clear in 1:46.07, with the winner’s share of £70,888 going to a mare who has only grown more reliable with age.

The decisive move came after Tattenham Corner. Six of the seven jockeys switched toward the stands’ side, but Pearson stayed committed to the far-side rail and kept Sparks Fly in a rhythm that the rest of the field never matched. The track opened up for her alone, and the Epsom press release called it the “right call” after the result was fully vindicated by the margin. Sparks Fly, sent off at 7/2 and carrying 9st 11lb, quickened away from rivals who had gone elsewhere for their racing room and was eased down once the race was effectively over.

The win carried a deeper weight because it came at the same track where Pearson suffered a broken neck in July 2022. She had been unseated when her saddle slipped aboard Be Lucky My Son in a handicap at Epsom, fracturing her C7 vertebra and facing months out of the saddle. Four years later, she returned to the same venue and landed her first British Group winner on a horse she knows well, a result that showed how far the recovery had come and how sharply her instincts still cut at one of the trickiest courses in the country.

Sparks Fly, a six-year-old bay mare by Muhaarar out of Stepping Out, owned by David Lowe and trained by David Loughnane, now has 13 wins from 28 starts. She had already finished third in the 2025 running of this same race, and her record includes earlier wins that mark her as a durable, high-end performer rather than a one-off improver. For Pearson, who had not won in 2026 before this ride, the performance was both a career milestone and a lesson in Epsom craft: sometimes the straightest line is the bravest one.