PRIX ROTHSCHILD

(Group 1)

RAIN finally came to Deauville last Sunday but, while there is little doubt that the officially ‘good-to-soft’ ground affected the result of the marquee event, the Group 1 Prix Rothschild, it is unlikely that it changed the identity of the winner – With You enjoyed such dominance that she would surely have prevailed on virtually any surface.

Winning trainer Freddy Head admitted afterwards that he had been worried about the softening underfoot conditions.

He also revealed that, although With You had won on ‘heavy’ on her juvenile debut, her late reappearance from winter quarters was caused by some sub-standard home work in testing conditions and the consequent desire to wait for the ground to dry up.

Yet punters were clearly unaware of such doubts, as the daughter of Dansili was backed in to favouritism, and the clock also suggested that the ground was pretty decent – the time was only a couple of seconds outside the race record.

Head also expressed relief that, stepping back from her close fifth over an extended mile and a quarter in the Prix de Diane, With You did not have to make her own running, instead getting a lovely lead from Crown Walk.

Having crossed swords with the trailblazer at the two-furlong marker, With You took a while to get on top, but she pulled right away in the closing stages to score by three lengths.

It was a landmark success for 29-year-old jockey Aurelien Lemaitre as it was his first Group 1 triumph.

“It’s 10 years now since I started riding for Monsieur Head,” Lemaitre said. “To start with it was just in the mornings, now it’s in the afternoons as well. That’s why this win means so much to me.”

Touchingly, Head was also mighty proud and said: “I’ve always wanted to mould a jockey. Making a man is more important than making a horse. “With You is really a very good filly who stays further and is capable of all kind of things, but for the moment I think that we might keep her to today’s conditions and go for the Prix Jacques Le Marois in a fortnight’s time, though I need to speak to her owner-breeder [George Strawbridge] before confirming that plan.”

Crown Walk kept on battling to hold off another Godolphin runner, Rosa Imperial, for second place, while Aljazzi came out the best of the three British raiders in fourth, her prospects having been compromised by the rain.

Curtis enjoys Comedy show

FRANCE many have won the football World Cup with England only fourth, but visitors from across the Channel are putting the home team firmly in their place at present when it comes to French juvenile group races.

Following on from Saturday’s Prix Six Perfections, the Darley Prix de Cabourg – another Group 3 event 24 hours later – witnessed a one-two for Yorkshire courtesy of Comedy and Kodyanna.

This took the score to 4-0 to England in youngsters pattern events so far this campaign. Comedy, by the Ballyhane Stud stallion, Dandy Man, is trained by Karl Burke, who is currently in 11th place in the French trainers’ championship, 10 places higher than he is in Britain.

Her two-length defeat of Richard Fahey’s Kodyanna was partly as a result of a well-judged front-running ride from Ben Curtis. A Kinsale native and former Irish champion apprentice, 29-year-old Curtis is enjoying a purple patch at the moment – this was the third group victory of his career, just a month after his first.

He said: “Comedy may not be very big but she’s got a massive heart. She’s kept on learning right from her debut run and she’s still not finished progressing.”

First for Australia

A MISSED flight cost Colm O’Donoghue the ride on Charlie Appleby’s Beyond Reason in the Prix Six Perfections and his replacement, Tony Piccone, took full advantage, overhauling the pace-setting Spirit Of Brittany deep inside the final furlong and then holding off the hard-charging Devant by a nose.

The victory, though narrow, was significant for two reasons: it was a first stakes success for the Coolmore sire, Australia, and was achieved in the royal blue silks of Godolphin, something that would have been impossible before Sheikh Mohammed last year lifted his long-standing boycott of Coolmore sires.

Appleby suggested afterwards that Beyond Reason may return to France in September for the Prix d’Aumale, while the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, no less, was earmarked as a long term target for Homerique by her trainer, Francois-Henri Graffard, after she broke her pattern race duck in Saturday’s Group 3 Prix de Psyche.