Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Group 1)

THE result of the Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches was slightly unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons.

The pace was nothing special, hence a winning time almost two seconds slower than the colts. The winning margin was just a nose, meaning that you had to have sympathy for the connections of the runner-up, Commes; there was some trouble in behind, mainly suffered by Watch Me. The line-up was also lacking Siyarafina, who brushed aside Commes over this track and trip three weeks earlier and was set to be supplemented only for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre to change his mind after a final gallop failed to impress him.

Having said all that, victory was highly significant for trainer Alex Pantall, as it was just his second Group 1 in almost four decades with a licence, and the winner, Castle Lady, remains unbeaten after three career starts and could yet turn out to be something pretty special.

Thanks to various minor setbacks as a juvenile, Castle Lady only came into training earlier this year and only made her first visit to a racecourse (Chantilly’s all-weather track) as recently as mid March, 15 minutes before Paisley Park won the Stayers Hurdle at Cheltenham.

She then galloped on turf for the first time in her life when landing the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte at Longchamp on April 14th. In repelling Commes here she became the first Pouliches heroine since 1977 not to have raced as a two-year-old.

The first two finished a length and a half ahead of the Breeders’s Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf second, East, with the front-running Imperial Charm repeating her Grotte running with the winner almost to the inch back in fourth.

Pantall said: “Castle Lady coped well with the soft ground today – she seems to adapt to any situation – and it’s amazing she was able to fight to the death given her inexperience.”

“I think a mile will turn out to be her ideal distance and she’s entered in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot so she will probably go there before taking in something like the Prix Jacques Le Marois.”

“She can still improve a lot physically, and I don’t think we’ve seen the best of her.”

Winning jockey Mickael Barzalona echoed those sentiments. “Today was the first time that she’s been involved in a real race,” he said. “She was travelling easily when she hit the front but I would have liked something to give me a lead for longer – in the end her immaturity almost cost her the race.”

Jean-Claude Rouget, trained of Commes, revealed: “We were expecting her to go close and she’s just not quite had the same turn of foot as the winner. Progeny of her sire, Le Havre, usually do well over a mile and a quarter, and she’s out of a mile and a quarter Group 3-winning mare, so she will relish a step up in trip and I hope to be able to run her in the Prix de Diane.”

Kevin Ryan was delighted with East’s third place and hinted that her next run may be in the Irish equivalent. “She had the widest draw and then broke too well – that forced her to race out wide, and don’t forget this was her first start of the season,” he said. “The Irish 1,000 Guineas is only two weeks away but we’ll see how she comes out of this – we haven’t ruled it out.”

Watch Me was the day’s hard luck story, beaten under three lengths in sixth having been denied a clear run on a couple of occasions in the home straight and earlier suffered at the hands of East, whose jockey, Jamie Spencer, was given a two-day ban for the incident.

Aidan O’Brien’s Coral Beach was ignored in the betting market as a 31/1 chance and ran to those odds to finish eighth of 10, albeit beaten no more than four lengths in total and not knocked about by Ryan Moore.