Prix Rothschild (Group 1)

SO much of the outcome of last Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville was old school.

The winner was named after the Marquise de Sevigne, a 17th Century letter writer.

The first two home, Mqse de Sevigne and Life In Motion, were both trained by 77-year-old Andre Fabre, who has been preparing horses to win his homeland’s top races for over 40 years.

And Mqse de Sevigne is owned by Baron Edouard de Rothschild, current president of France Galop after whose family the race is named, and is a third generation home-bred, raised at the nearby Haras de Meautry, which has been run by a member of the de Rothschild clan for nigh on 150 years. De Rothschild was scheduled to present the trophy but instead received it from his young son, Louis.

It was not, however, a result that was easy to predict beforehand: the winner was without a single success in the previous 15 months and had been beaten in listed company on her most recent start, while the runner-up warmed up for this prestigious mile event by finishing sixth of eight in Group 3 company.

Not unexpected

If you had been watching out for trends in the best 2023 female all-aged races, the winner’s identity might not have been quite so unexpected.

Rogue Millennium and Nashwa, two classy four-year-old fillies, have produced career best efforts when dropped back to this distance after being regularly campaigned over further, so Mqse de Sevigne was simply following suit.

Indeed, de Rotschild revealed in a post-race interview that Fabre had been prompted to try the step down in trip after watching Nashwa crush her opponents over a supposedly inadequate mile in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes.

Sauterne, who was having her 10th start in the last eight months and is probably the best of France’s three-year-old fillies outside of the other-worldly Blue Rose Cen, set a none-too-vigorous tempo at the head of a nine-runner field.

After kicking for home with a quarter of a mile to run, she had shaken off Jessica Harrington’s Sounds Of Heaven approaching the final furlong before Remarquee, the pick of three British raiders, also cried enough with 200 yards left.

That was the foreigners out of the way, but Sauterne’s stamina was insufficient to hold back the Fabre duo, Mqse de Sevigne edging home by a short neck ahead of Life In Motion with Sauterne notching her third Group 1 placing of the season, a half-length back in third to complete a home 1-2-3, bringing to an end a sequence of 12 consecutive overseas successes over a period of two years in Deauville Group 1s.

Ill-suited

Remarquee took fourth, a further three lengths adrift, while Sounds Of Heaven dropped away quickly to be another six lengths behind in sixth, Kate Harrington suggesting afterwards that her mother’s Kingman filly had been ill-suited by the officially ‘soft’ ground.

The victory must have been particularly sweet for Fabre as it was a first at the top level for 22-year-old jockey Alexis Pouchin, who is the son of Fabre’s long-serving travelling head lad, Joel Pouchin.

Indeed, young master Pouchin enjoyed a stupendous day, as he went on to complete a treble on the card when Laulne, a Starspangledbanner juvenile filly trained by Yann Barberot, got the better of Classic Flower in a tight finish to the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections Sky Sports Racing where only two lengths covered the first four across the line.

Weekend raid

The big British and Irish weekend raid, which had begun at Clairefontaine 24 hours earlier when Joseph O’Brien’s Dancing Tango fared best of a six-strong Anglo-Irish contingent but still came up a neck shy of the German-trained Derida in the listed Prix Luth Enchantee, did enjoy one moment of respite when Elite Status atoned for his Royal Ascot reverse when lifting the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg.

A son of Havana Grey trained by Karl Burke and stepped up to six furlongs for the first time, Elite Status produced a professional performance to dispose of a pair of promising French colts, Sajir and Havana Cigar, by a length and a quarter and a length.

In so doing, he booked his return trip to the Group 1 Prix de Morny in just over a fortnight’s time.

Finally, Mauricio Delcher’s improving Cotai Glory three-year-old filly Excellent Truth, who was bred in Ireland by Sandra Russell, overturned Longchamp form from seven weeks earlier to beat Left Sea by a neck in the Group 3 Prix de Psyche Sky Sports Racing over a mile and a half.