DARLEY PRIX JEAN

ROMANET (GROUP 1)

ROGER Varian had an anxious 15-minutes wait before Ajman Princess was confirmed as the winner of the Group 1 Darley Prix Jean Romanet which started the English rout at Deauville last Sunday. Ridden by Andrea Atzeni, the daughter of Teofilo showed much better form on this occasion, which was put down to the ground and a change in tactics.

The Teofilo filly was asked to make all the running in the 10-furlong event and she appeared to enjoy bowling along in front. Although she did not keep quite straight in the final stages, she held on gamely to beat Seeyoushake and the fast-finishing Left Hand with a slightly unlucky Smart Call fourth in front of the disappointing favourite, So Mi Dar.

The Stewards decided not to change the result but did dish out some punishments. They fined Atzeni €300 for causing a minor incident, suspended Aurelien Lemaitre (Seeyoushake) for two days for abusive use of the whip and Jim Crowley €150 for the same offence.

For Atzeni, it was his first Group 1 success in France and Ajman Princess broke the race record by more than a second. “I must thank Sheikh Obaid for letting us employ front-running tactics,” commented Varian before adding: “In the past we’ve held her up over a mile and a half and today we let her roll. The ground dried in her favour and Andrea rode a perfect race. It was quite a challenge to go from a listed event to a Group 1 but the Jean Romanet was the perfect race for her. It is easily the best performance of her career to date. We will look at races like the Prix de l’Opera or the Fillies and Mares at Ascot.”

Freddy Head was happy with Siyoushake and Carlos Laffon-Parias will now try for back-to-back wins with Left Hand in the Prix Vermeille. Frankie Dettori was disappointed with fifth placed So Mi Dar and said: “Horses normally stay further with age but she has done the opposite. She is much faster now and she might be brought back in trip now.”