Deauville Sunday

3.40 Prix Rothschild (Group 1) (3yo+ Fillies) Of €300,000. 1m (Straight)

BLUE Bolt has been impressive on all three of her starts this season and will be expected by many to make it four victories in a row in the eight-runner Group 1 Prix Rothschild tomorrow, the opening day of Deauville’s month-long summer festival.With her trainer, Andrew Balding, in such good form, the Blue Point four-year-old is sure to be sent off at prohibitive odds.

Her price will be further shortened by the fact that she had Aidan O’Brien’s Precise and the Karl Burke-trained Evolutionist, two of the other three overseas challengers for this mile fillies’ contest, in her wake when breaking her top-level duck with a two-length verdict in the Falmouth Stakes three weeks ago.

However, Blue Bolt will be travelling outside England for the first time, and her journey will be made more stressful by the current hot conditions, so she may be worth opposing with Green Spirit, who is the pick of the domestic quartet and and could be improved by the addition of blinkers.

Three performances

It is hard to make a case for this three-year-old daughter of Kingman on the back of her three performances so far this season, the best of which was a third place, four and a half lengths behind the brilliant Diamond Necklace, in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.

But Green Spirit was a top-class juvenile, getting much closer to Diamond Necklace when runner-up in the Prix Marcel Boussac.

More importantly, her trainer, Christopher Head, is in much better form now than when he suffered a dismal start to the campaign - his representatives have been winning at a remarkable 50% strike rate over the past five weeks.

Already successful in no less than four Group 1 contests, Precise was put firmly in her place when second in the Falmouth and it is a little surprising that she is staying at a mile to take on the winner again here (and on a less demanding track) rather than stepping up in distance.

The foreign contingent is completed by Sir Mark Prescott’s Moon Target, who was having her first run of the season when finishing fourth, two lengths behind Precise, in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes, so could potentially make a big leap forward here, fitness-wise.

Outside of Green Spirit, the highest rated member of the home team is Godspeed, who was not disgraced when two and a half lengths fourth in this race last year but has over nine lengths to make up on Blue Bolt from their recent Royal Ascot meeting.

SELECTION: GREEN SPIRIT Next Best: Blue Bolt