Darley Prix Jean Romanet (Group 1)

MORE British success was expected in the Group 1 Darley Prix Jean Romanet, both beforehand, when punters backed the Nassau Stakes heroine, Lady Bowthorpe, into favouritism, and during the race when it’s 2020 winner, Audarya, moved stylishly into the lead and seemed to have her seven rivals covered with half a furlong to run.

But, not helped by suffering a hefty bump and having to violently change course early in the home straight, Audarya could not quite put the issue beyond doubt.

She was ground down in the very last stride by Grand Glory, a dual Group 3-winning daughter of Olympic Glory who, owing a record of just two wins from her previous 10 starts, was sent off as a 23/1 outsider.

Grand Glory is trained by the Roman, Gianluca Bietolini, who emigrated to Maisons-Laffitte in 2013, and was ridden by the Milan-born Cristian Demuro. She is also American-owned, so might possibly try to complete the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf double that Audarya pulled off last season.

The three Irish challengers – Joseph O’Brien’s Thundering Nights, Jessica Harrington’s Cayenne Pepper and the Willie McCreery-trained Insinuendo – had met each other before in the Pretty Polly Stakes and they finished in the same order here.

Remarkably, the one-and-three-quarter-length gap between third-placed Thundering Nights and Cayenne Pepper, in fifth, was reproduced to the inch, but Insinuendo had an off day and trailed home in last.

Raabihah improves

Some onlookers were getting pretty excited following the two-and-a-half-length victory of Raabihah in the Group 2 Darley Prix de Pomone, suggesting that she could go on to improve upon her placings in last year’s Prix Vermeille (second) and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (fifth).

Sure, this Sea The Stars filly was once labelled ‘one of the best I’ve ever trained’ by Jean-Claude Rouget and this step-up to an extended mile and a half was perfect for her.

But her three previous starts this term had all been distinctly underwhelming and the ease of her victory here was partly down to the favourite, Valia, having fallen out of the stalls and then been tenderly handled by Christophe Soumillon once winning was off the agenda.

Harrington’s Silence Please more than paid for her journey from Co Kildare in finishing a distant fourth.

Hands down the best trial for Arc weekend was posted by Skazino in the Group 2 Darley Prix Kergorlay.

On the face of it, a victory by a head over the admirable but hardly top-class German stayer, Rip Van Lips, is nothing to write home about. But the manner of his victory was absolutely outstanding.

Trail-blazing

Given the perfect lead by the trail-blazing Alkuin, Rip Van Lips slipped the rest of the six-strong field by 15 lengths and the front pair were still well clear with little more than three furlongs to run. The gap seemed insurmountable right up until the last 200 yards, but Skazino really stuck his neck out and got up in the nick of time.

His rider, Mickael Barzalona, admitted: “I really should have taken up the chase earlier and Skazino has got me out of jail,” while trainer Cedric Rossi said: “it’s all systems go for the Prix du Cadran now. The extra distance (two and a half miles) scares me, but the opposition doesn’t.”

Like the Romanet over the same one-mile, two-furlong trip, Saturday’s Group 2 Prix de la Nonette produced a big upset as the 35/1 chance, Rumi, bounced back from two modest efforts in Group 1 company.

The Carlos Laffon-Parias-trained Frankel filly got up on the line to beat Penja by a nose with the fast-finishing Rougir just a short neck adrift in third. Zeyaadah poured more cold water on the reliability of the Nassau Stakes form with her performance here, starting slowly and coming home a never-dangerous fifth.

Accakaba unbeaten

The other fillies’ Group 2 on the card, the Prix du Calvados for two-year-olds, saw Accakaba extend the unbeaten start to her career to four races. Trainer Christophe Ferland nominated the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere as a next target for this daughter of Acclamation, but it’s hard to see her beating Trident in that one.