THE other Sunday highlight at Deauville was the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg, a six-furlong juvenile event which attracted a field of six.

The only foreign contender was another Yorkshire raider, Mont Kiara, from the Kevin Ryan yard. She ran well for a once-raced maiden to snatch third on the line, suggesting that a longer trip might suit, but was no match for two more battle-hardened sorts in Tourny and Du Pyla.

The Pascal Bary-trained Tourny, a daughter of Country Reel, came out on top by a short neck. Racing beyond five furlongs for the first time, she was given a well-judged ride by Gregory Benoist to improve one place upon her effort in another Group 3, the Prix du Bois.

GHERDAIYA

Perhaps the most promising two-year-old performance of Sunday came in the opening Prix du Mezeray as Gherdaiya took her record for owners Al Shaqab Racing and trainer André Fabre to a perfect two-from-two.

A daughter of Shamardal who cost a whopping €720,000 at the Arqana yearling sales, Gherdaiya is a full-sister to the four-time Group 3 scorer, French Navy, and has the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket in October among her possible autumn targets.

Saturday was not a good day for the reputation of this year’s running of the Prix de Diane. Not only did the winner of that French Classic, Star Of Seville, blot her copybook by trailing home among the backmarkers in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, but also the second, Physiocrate, completely failed to justify hot favouritism in Deauville’s feature event, the Group 3 Prix de Psyche.

Indeed, two other Diane fillies, Sainte Amarante (fifth) and Mojo Risin (12th) were expected to provide Physicrate with her sternest Psyche opposition.

Instead it was another European classic, the German 1000 Guineas, which held the key to the race as Bourree, an unlucky fourth in that Dusseldorf event, beat Sainte Amarante by half a length.

A daughter of Siyouni, Bourree returned at the generous odds of 19-1 on the Pari-Mutuel.

But her German handler, Andreas Lowe, was not at all surprised by the result and immediately nominated the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp on Arc day as her main end-of-season target.

While on the subject of Germany, the Diane form took another knock there on Sunday when Desiree Clary, the Chantilly fourth, could only manage fifth behind Turfdonna in the Preis der Diana.

However, optimists could interpret the Diana form differently as its close second, Nightflower, had finished only eighth in the Diane.

Moving on to Tuesday and, much to the relief of his trainer, Francois Rohaut, Mr Owen bounced back to form following an off day in the Prix Jean Prat to land the Listed Prix de Tourgeville.

Sold to Qatar Racing following his fine third in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, Mr Owen is a son of Rohaut’s Canadian Group 1-winning mare, Mrs Lindsay, and could himself be off to Toronto in a few weeks time to contest the Woodbine Mile.