Prix de Diane Longines (Group 1)
AIDAN O’Brien’s Diamond Necklace maintained her unblemished record to land her third straight Group 1 prize in last Sunday’s Prix de Diane Longines. But she didn’t sparkle.
It may sound churlish to crab an unbeaten dual classic heroine. However, given her previous racecourse exploits and the fact that this daughter of St Mark’s Basilica had cost a whopping €1.7 million at Arqana as a yearling, a hard-fought short neck victory over the unheralded outsider, Pink Panthera (who had been beaten by over four lengths in listed company just six weeks earlier and is by a stallion, Chachnak, who stands at a covering fee of just €3,000), can hardly be said to have really enhanced her reputation.
Reveal
What Sunday’s contest did reveal was that Diamond Necklace has toughness and a will to win to go with her undoubted quality.
It may transpire both that she needs some cut in the ground to be seen at her best. And also, Pink Panthera is herself a top-class filly - her owner-breeder-trainer combination of Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois and Patrice Cottier produced a similarly-overlooked type in Sparkling Plenty to land this two years ago.
Hard race
A word of caution should readers decide to take a positive view of the form. Diamond Necklace had a hard race, make no mistake - the unrelenting gallop meant that the winning time was a whisker away from breaking Treve’s record.
I would be wary of expecting a peak performance from her should she return to the track without being given a decent amount of time to recover.
Unlike in the Prix du Jockey Club a fortnight previously, when Montreal got his own way at the head of affairs, this time Wayne Lordan had to fight off the attentions of Esna before he was able to get to the front and set a strong pace on the Ballydoyle pacemaker, Moments Of Joy.
Ryan Moore was comfortable enough early aboard Diamond Necklace, but chose not to dive down to the rail from his low draw and, with the weakening Esna threatening to fall back into his lap, switched his mount towards the outside early in the home straight.
Pink Panthera, who had been dropped out in the rear and was still last two and a half furlongs out, came widest of all and got first run ahead of the red hot 1/2 on favourite when moving into the lead approaching the furlong marker.
Asked for maximum effort, Diamond Necklace dug deep to get back past and looked set to record a decisive verdict, only for Pink Panthera to rally and make it quite close on the line.
Trained by David Menuisier, Inis Mor proved to be the pick of the five-strong British contingent two lengths back in third, having always held a prominent position and made her bid for glory when hitting the front as the field turned for home.
Afterwards, O’Brien was keen to stress that the winner doesn’t tend to overexert herself once she has taken the lead.
“She’s always like that when we work her at home,” he said. “She goes clear, then she waits.
“We’ve always thought that she could get a mile and a half under a patient ride and her stride wasn’t shortening at the end.
“She’ll probably either go for an Arc trial or go for another mile and a quarter fillies’ race.”
Moore added: “Diamond Necklace is very straightforward. I had to start moving a bit earlier than I had planned, but when the second horse came past, she really stuck her head out.
“She might stay further, but she has got plenty of pace so she’s got plenty of options.”
Rest of the card
UNABLE to match the prestige and riches on offer at Royal Ascot just 48 hours later, the two main supporting races cut up into uncompetitive four-runner Group 3 affairs.
British trainer Owen Burrows deserves credit for identifying such an enticing opportunity for his steadily-improving Blue Point four-year-old, Remmooz, who held off his younger rival, Elastic, by half a length in the mile Prix Bertrand du Breuil Longines.
And the wily old fox, Andre Fabre, landed the mile and a half Prix du Lys Longines for the 16th time, 42 years after his initial triumph, courtesy of the American Pharaoh colt, Space Waltz.