Deauville Sunday

2.50 Sumbe Prix Morny (Group 1) (2yo Colts & Fillies) 6f

Aidan O’Brien’s decision to go for a more valuable York Ebor Meeting target with the brilliant Sun Goddess means that tomorrow’s Group 1 Sumbe Prix Morny looks like being a battle of the sexes between two superb British-based juveniles: the filly, Senorita Bonita, and the colt, Orthodox.

Slight preference is for Senorita Bonita, who holds many similarities to the 2023 Morny winner, Vandeek.

Like him, she hails from the yard of Simon and Ed Crisford and was purchased by the Bahraini Al Khalifa family, when topping the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, in her case for 900,000gns.

She has begun to repay that monster investment, following a second place in a red-hot renewal of the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes by going one better in the Group 2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes, beating this week’s Group 2 Lowther Stakes heroine, Libertango, in the process. Those performances strike me as being marginally more impressive than what has been achieved by Orthodox, whose trainer, Clive Cox, has a solid Morny record, having annexed it with Reckless Abandon in 2012, and, more recently, saddled Golden Horde and Nando Parrado to finish placed.

Absent

Orthodox was Royal Ascot’s easiest juvenile scorer, trouncing the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes field by three and a half lengths, but that form has not worked out particularly strongly and the fact that the son of Havana Grey has been absent for two months since then, having been forced to miss the Prix Robert Papin because of an unsatisfactory scope, counts against him. O’Brien saddles three of the eight runners and, perhaps surprisingly, Ryan Moore has chosen to partner the Group 2 Richmond Stakes victor, Man’s Best Friend, rather than Great Barrier Reef, who has not been seen since landing what looks like a sub-standard Group 2 Coventry Stakes in June thanks to a bout of ringworm. Carry The Flag will ensure a strong pace..

Further Irish involvement comes in the shape of Tribeca, but this Robson de Aguiar-trained colt has plenty to find on the form book having beaten only three home in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes.

The home team has a poor record in this, France’s most prestigious summer juvenile contest, having retained the trophy just twice in the last two decades. Andre Fabre, who snared the most recent domestic success, with Earthlight in 2019, is responsible (this time in conjunction with daughter Lavinia) for the pick of the local duo, the unbeaten filly Kosuma, but she needs to step up again on what she showed in landing the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg.

SELECTION: SENORITA BONITA

Next Best: Orthodox

3.25 Sumbe Prix Jean Et Louis Romanet (Group 1) (4yo+ Fillies & Mares) 1m 2f

It remains my firm belief that Aidan O’Brien’s Diamond Necklace was a little off-colour when she scrambled home by a short neck from Pink Panthera in the Group 1 Prix de Diane. She was back on song in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood three weeks ago and can extend her unbeaten career record to seven races by taking tomorrow’s other Deauville Group 1, the Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet. Pink Panthera is again among her opponents, as is Aventure, who has never quite got back to the level that she showed when finishing runner-up in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe two years ago. Neither makes much appeal here, and maybe Charlie Johnston’s Timeforshowcasing, who ran a stormer when second in a Munich Group 1 last time, can chase Diamond Necklace home.

SELECTION: DIAMOND NECKLACE Next Best: Timeforshowcasing

Earlier on the card, the Donnacha O’Brien-trained Dee’s Funny Girl faces five opponents in the €119,000 Group 2 Sumbe Prix du Calvados over seven furlongs, while Joseph O’Brien’s recent Goodwood winner, Defiantly, has been supplemented into a six-runner field for the mile and seven furlongs €164,700 Group 2 Sumbe Prix Kergorlay, where the British raider, Santorini Star, looks hard to beat.