Sumbe Prix Morny (Group 1)

TWO potential European champion fillies put their credentials on the line during the Group 1 feature races on the Sumbe-sponsored card Deauville last Sunday and experienced markedly differing fortunes.

One, the juvenile Senorita Bonita, bolstered her CV with a four-length rout of her six rivals in the Prix Morny, while the other, Aidan O’Brien’s three-year-old Diamond Necklace, lost her unbeaten record and only just clung on for second place in the Prix Jean et Louis Romanet, considerably damaging her title aspirations.

After O’Brien was forced to scratch one of his representatives, Great Barrier Reef, owing to an elevated temperature, the Morny set up perfectly for one of his two remaining contenders, the front-running Carry The Flag, and, as it turned out, for Senorita Bonita.

The 38/1 longshot Carry The Flag broke well and soon broke away, helped by the fact that in second place was another outsider, Tribeca, who had no great incentive to follow a rapid pace, while in third was the more fancied Orthodox, who was always going to be held together by Rossa Ryan given that his trainer, Clive Cox, had been open about his concerns about his stable star’s ability to handle the officially ‘very soft’ ground.

So Carry The Flag was able to gain a handy advantage and was still at least six lengths clear when Orthodox took up the chase with a quarter of the six-furlong contest left to run.

Stormed up

His wheels spinning on the rain-softened surface, Orthodox’s effort proved to be short-lived, in stark contrast to the patiently-ridden Senorita Bonita, who stormed up the stands’ side to hit the front with 75 yards to run and positively sprinted clear to register an impressive triumph.

Carry The Flag held off the fast-finishing Kosuma by a short neck to take second while Man’s Best Friend, the supposed O’Brien first string, got going much too late having been badly outpaced at the two-furlong pole to come home in fourth, a further length and a quarter adrift.

A daughter of Starspangledbanner bred at the Gaffney family’s Churchtown House Stud in Co Cork and ridden by Oisin Murphy, who spent some of his youth in Co Cork while based with his uncle, Jim Culloty, Senorita Bonita was a second Morny winner in three years for the father and son training combination of Simon and Ed Crisford, following Vandeek in 2023.

Both were owned by members of the Bahraini royal family and acquired at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale: Vandeek for 625,000 guineas and Senorita Bonita for 900,000 guineas.

Autumn highlights

Simon Crisford said: “She’s got an electric turn and finished off the race superbly well. She’s a proper filly and we’ll head to the Cheveley Park Stakes with her where we’re likely going to face Sun Goddess and Libertango, which will make it one of the highlights of the autumn.

“She is obviously exceptional, which explains her purchase price, and she also has a great temperament. The sky’s the limit for her.

“I hope she can also have a great campaign as a three-year-old as, when you look at her dam’s side, there are some very interesting elements, it’s a stamina-rich pedigree. Physically, she looks more like a six-furlong horse. But next year, we’ll certainly try stepping her up in distance.”

O’Brien reacted by saying: “Man’s Best Friend ran well and Ryan [Moore] said that we should step him up to seven furlongs, while Carry The Flag would be happy to drop back to five.”

Prix Jean et Louis Romanet (Group 1)

DIAMOND Necklace did not really sparkle on her previous visit to France, when edging home by a short neck in the Diane, but, following a dominant display in the Nassau Stakes, she was the overwhelming favourite to land a seventh straight victory and a fifth consecutive Group 1 in the Romanet.

Yet she had no obvious excuses, coming through to challenge approaching the furlong marker before failing to match the finishing burst of the winner, as she went down by two lengths to Aventure.

Losing out to a mare who had got to within little more than a length of winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe less than two years ago and appears to have relished this drop back to a mile and two furlongs was no disgrace.

However, the fact that the Charlie Johnston-trained 48/1 chance Timeforshowcasing was just a head behind her in third suggests that Diamond Necklace underperformed. O’Brien was keen to give proper credit to Aventure, saying: “The winner was better than Diamond Necklace today. I was happy with my filly going in and the ground was not a concern.”

Magnificent mare

A Wertheimer brothers’ home-bred five-year-old daughter of Sea The Stars, Aventure’s performance prompted her trainer, Christophe Ferland, to say: “She’s a magnificent mare and over the last couple of months we have sensed that she might be getting quicker with age.”

“She’s unlikely to have a third crack at the Arc, keeping her at this trip for the Prix de l’Opera is our intended path before a possible trip to Hong Kong at the end of the year.”

It was a disappointing race for the five-strong Irish contingent. Outside of Diamond Necklace, the first home was Ger Lyons’s Red Letter in sixth, beaten by just under eight lengths, half a length and one place in front of the Joseph O’Brien-trained Rebel Moon.

DONNACHA O’Brien suffered the letdown of seeing his juvenile filly, Dee’s Funny Girl, run as if there was something amiss when trailing the field home as the odds-on favourite in a seven-furlong Group 2 Sumbe Prix du Calvados which witnessed a wide-margin success for the Wootton Bassett filly, Woot Woot, from the Christopher Head stable.

But, from the perspective of the O’Brien family, the afternoon was saved by the dominant five and a half-length pillar-to-post victory achieved by Joseph’s Defiantly in the mile and seven-furlongs Group 2 Sumbe Prix Kergorlay.

Transformed by the application of blinkers, which has brought huge efforts in handicap company at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood on his previous two starts, this was another massive career best for Defiantly. Bought by his current Australian owners in the spring, he now looks an obvious candidate for November’s Melbourne Cup – a race in which Joseph has an outstanding record.

NEWS broke on Tuesday that Jean-Claude Rouget, one of France’s most popular and successful trainers with well over 7,000 winners to his name, will hand in his licence next month at the age of 73. He has been winding down his business since he was diagnosed with lymphoma in May 2024.

The son of a trainer, Rouget joined the profession at the tender age of 25 way back in 1978 and for the vast majority of his career was based at Pau, almost 500 miles away from Paris in the South West, not far from the Spanish border.

He built up his numbers steadily, his initial seasonal winners total of 14 being improved upon every single campaign until 1994, the year that he enjoyed his first Group 1 success when Millkom lifted the Prix Jean Prat.

Top horses

Included among the many top class horses to pass through his hands were the multiple top level scorers Stacelita, Avenir Certain, La Cressonniere, Sottsass and the Irish Champion Stakes victor, Almanzor, though he arguably saved his best until last when Ace Impact crowned an unbeaten career by landing the 2023 renewal of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.