Prix Jean Romanet (Group 1)

TRAINER James Fanshawe trumped Ward’s achievement – three Mornys inside eight years – when landing his third Group 1 Darley Prix Jean Romanet in the last seven years thanks to the 48/1 outsider, Audarya.

This must go down as an inspired piece of placing by the Newmarket handler, as Audarya, a daughter of Wootton Bassett, had done nothing in three starts this campaign to suggest that she was even close to Group 1 standard.

Yes, she was a last-time-out-winner, but that success came by a short-head in a handicap on Newcastle’s Tapeta surface.

The margin was slightly elongated to a neck here as Audarya, a chance ride for Ioritz Mendizabal, saw off the persistent challenge of Ambition, the pair pulling four lengths clear.

Speaking from home, Fanshawe admitted: “The Romanet is a race I’ve always loved, it’s the last chance for older fillies before they have to take on the three-year-olds.

“I was walking my box over the last couple of days thinking she was in too deep. Now she’ll probably head for the Prix de l’Opera.”

Mendizabal would surely have worn a sheepish grin on his face, if we could have seen it beneath his black highwayman-style mask, as Fanshawe had told him that Audarya wouldn’t like the ground.

Sunday’s other two feature races brought significant victories for Freddy Head and Alain de Royer-Dupre, two much respected members of the French training fraternity.

Head had gone over two months, and 50 runners, since his last winner before the ever-dependable Call The Wind got him out of the slump by landing the Group 2 Darley Prix Kergorlay.

The six-year-old Frankel gelding, who narrowly avoided a serious tendon problem when suffering a leg injury on his previous start in June, will be aimed at the Prix du Cadran, which he won in 2018 before finishing second 12 months later.

The 75-year-old Royer-Dupre had announced that this campaign would be his last but, partly because of Covid, he has decided to extend his career until 2021, which will complete his half century as a member of the brotherhood.

Renowned for his patience, he admitted exactly that attribute had paid off following Ebaiyra’s pillar-to-post victory in the Group 2 Darley Prix de Pomone.

She defied Brian Meehan’s cross-Channel challenger, Spirit Of Appin, by three-quarters of a length to further enhance the strength of the form of the Prix de Diane, in which she finished sixth.