Prix de Rothschild (Group 1)
MQSE De Sevigne repeated her 2023 triumph in last Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de Rothschild at Deauville but the style of, and background behind, the two victories could barely have been more different.
A year earlier the daughter of Siyouni had arrived at the start of this straight mile fillies’ event on the back of a 15-month winless spell, was a 12/1 outsider and scrambled home by a short-neck despite hanging left after hitting the front.
This time around, the Andre Fabre-trained five-year-old went into the stalls as the odds-on favourite having won three of her four starts in the intervening 12 months, including two at Group 1 level, the only question mark being if she retained the speed to still succeed over this trip after having proved herself over a mile and a furlong and a mile and two.
Those doubts were dispelled in no uncertain terms, as Mqse De Sevigne cruised past the leader, Ribaltagaia, with more than a furlong to run and, given just one meaningful crack of the whip by Alexis Pouchin, crossed the line a length clear with her jockey able to begin his exultant celebrations, standing up in his irons and punching the air, a few moments before the winning post had been reached.
The perhaps surprising drop in distance can be explained by the fact that the race is named after the family of Mqse De Sevigne’s owner-breeder, former president of France Galop Baron Edouard de Rothschild, who underlined what the result meant to him in his post-race comments.
Named in honour
“It’s particularly close to my heart to again win a race named in honour of my ancestors,” he said. “She did so with much more comfort than last year – hers is a family which gets better with age, and she’s improved again from four to five.
“The plan now is to have a go at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, taking in another race that she won last year, the Prix Jean Romanet, en route, before retiring her to the paddocks.”
Given that she would surely have won this had it been a seven-furlong contest, a step up to a mile and a half for the Arc might seem a trifle ambitious.
However, she is a half-sister to Meandre, who won four Group 1s over a mile and a half and finished a creditable sixth in the 2012 running of France’s premier race, and Fabre has gone close to winning it with converted milers in the past, most recently when Persian King finished third in 2020.
Excellent Truth, an Irish-bred daughter of Cotai Glory trained by Mauricio Delcher, came up with a big personal best to take second place, while the two Irish raiders, Rogue Millennium from the Joseph O’Brien yard and Willie McCreery’s Ocean Jewel, justified the trip by filling the next two places, a further length and a half and three-quarters of a length adrift.
JOSEPH O’Brien will no doubt also have been satisfied with the performance of Uluru, his other runner on the card, the daughter of Dubawi getting to within three-quarters of a length of the pillar-to-post heroine, Almara, when taking second in the Group 3, mile and two-furlong Prix de Psyche Sky Sports Racing, thus gaining crucial blacktype on her first attempt in stakes race company.
Sunday’s other two pattern events, the Prix de Cabourg and the Prix Six Perfections Sky Sports Racing, were a pair of juvenile Group 3 races run over six and seven furlongs respectively.
The Cabourg went to the Patrice Cottier-trained Daylight, who atoned for her defeat at the hands of the subsequent Group 2 scorer Arabie in the Prix du Bois to post a convincing two and a half-length victory and give her first-season sire Earthlight his initial group glory.
Daylight is set for a rematch with Arabie, and cross swords with Aidan O’Brien’s Fairy Godmother, in the Group 1 Sumbe Prix Morny over this course and distance in a fortnight’s time.
Angeal, an unbeaten Coolmore-bred daughter of Wootton Bassett trained by Christopher Head, edged out Royalty Bay and Relaxx by a short-neck and a head to land the Six Perfections and has the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac on October 6th as her end-of-season target.