Blue Bolt is favourite for the Group 1 Prix Rothschild but is Graeme North with or against the Falmouth Stakes winner?
North on Sunday selections
13:32 Valentina Bella 0.5pt win 9/1
15:40 Green Spirit 1pt e.w. at 18/1 (1,2,3 1/5)
Thankfully Deauville’s summer season is finally upon us and with it an unbroken set of Sunday Group 1 cards throughout August which I’ll be previewing here each week.
If there’s two lessons above all else to take from Deauville last summer it is that the ground, particularly after the current summer France has had, will almost certainly be a lot faster than officially advertised and that horses held up on the round course will generally face a stiff task given Deauville’s straight, like most in France, is a lot shorter than most of those found at the top tracks in Britain or Ireland.
Sunday’s Deauville card is headed by the Group 1 Prix Rothschild besides which there are three Group 3 events, the Prix Six Perfections, Prix de Cabourg and the Sky Sports Racing Prix de Psyche. French-based trainers and British-based trainers shared the spoils last season with two wins apiece and that may be the case again this year.
The Prix Rothschild (15:40) for fillies and mares has been shared around over the past ten seasons with the home team winning five, Brith-based trainers winning three, including last year with Fallen Angel, and Irish-based trainers winning the other two, both courtesy of Aidan O’Brien. All three countries are represented again this year with O’Brien relying on Precise who has won six of her last eight races including the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes (Moon Target who re-opposes here was back in fourth) but was beaten fair and square last time out by Blue Bolt in the Falmouth Stakes, unable to go with the winner in a well-run race and beaten two lengths in a contest in which another of today’s runners, Evolutionist, the 1000 Guineas runner-up, was another three and a quarter lengths behind in fourth.
Evolutionist raced in the smaller group of three closest to the stand rail and even showed ahead for a stride or two before the two-furlong marker, but like Precise who tracked Blue Bolt more towards the centre she was also quickly up against it once Blue Bolt travelled smoothly into the lead and the pair would have been beaten a bit further had the winner not taken things easy inside the last fifty yards. Blue Bolt had earlier won the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge over another straight mile at Royal Ascot from Jancis who takes her on again here and was also behind her in fifth at Newmarket.
It strikes me that it’s still not fully appreciated what a top-class performer Blue Bolt has developed into but the bookmakers are taking no chances here at 4/5. A literal collateral interpretation through Precise would make Blue Bolt 123 on Timeform ratings; for context Fallen Angel won the race last year with a rating of 114 and the highest needed to win it in the last 10 years is 118.
If anything might derail her it will probably be either the draw - she has stall one next to the rail and last year in this race the rail looked much slower than the centre - or a possible lack of pace. Gaga Girl, a listed winner last time out having previously been beaten in a handicap at Royal Ascot, and Godspeed who was fourth in this race last year but who has struggled to recapture her form this season, are usually dropped out.
With no pacemaker in for Precise, the likeliest pace will come from the Andre Fabre trained Anakova who made a lot of the running when winning a listed race (from Gaga Girl) last time at Longchamp and is in the same ownership as the more talented Green Spirit who did best of those drawn high when catching the eye from a long way back in the French 1000 before finding the trip too far in the French Oaks. She was the only one to give Diamond Necklace a race in the Marcel Boussac last season and I feel we haven’t yet seen the best of her this season but might be set to today.
The opening Prix Six Perfections (12:56) isn’t a race that has interested the Irish much over the years and they are absent again this year with six of the seven entries trained in France.
The only one that isn’t is the good-moving Newmarket-trained Nicely who shaped quite well at Nottingham first time out after being acquired from the Breeze-Ups before landing a slowly-run race at Hamilton by nearly five lengths, taking time to assert but going away quickly in the final furlong. Amo Racing has already sent across one youngster to win at Deauville this summer, Crownbreaker, and analysis of the sectional breakdown of her Hamilton win suggests Nicely is probably just as good as her stablemate, so must be taken seriously.
The French have won the last three runnings of this race with the last two being won by the Christoper Head stable (Green Spirit won it last year) and he is represented this year by both Data and Woot Woot. Data was second at Saint-Cloud on her debut behind another of today’s rivals, Flying Spur, before scoring over a mile at Clairefontaine where she came from last to first but looked to be treading water close home despite being on what was probably the best part of the track. Data had been given quite a considerate introduction at Saint-Cloud but it was hard not to be impressed that day by the turn of foot shown by Flying Spur with the tracking data showing she ran the last 600m or nearly three furlongs four lengths faster than anything else.
Woot Woot was beaten by another of today’s runners, Queen Of The Day, at Saint-Cloud on her debut, caught only by one who took a long time to get going as she did next time out too when second in a listed race over today’s course and distance, but she was impressive second time out again at Saint-Cloud beating the horse who had finished one place behind her on debut. The field is made up by Yuquot, who was second to the subsequent Prix Robert-Papin winner Tokaido in a six-furlong Group 3 here but has been no better than third in listed company either side and now steps up in distance, and the outclassed Etoile d’Armor. The race is hard to call but Queen Of The Day looks too short at 6/4.
The Prix de Cabourg (13:32) is a race the French have struggled to keep at home in recent seasons including last year when a very substandard renewal was won by Tadej.
This year’s contest looks much stronger and features a fascinating runner in the Francis Graffard trained Australian-bred Primetime Emmy, a daughter of the crack Australian sprinter Extreme Choice who has become one of Australia’s most sought-after sires despite chronic infertility. Primetime Emmy won her only race so far, over today’s course and distance, in sparkling fashion, though two of those behind her in that newcomers event matched or bettered her final 600m time from poorer positions, so what that form is worth isn’t easy to pin down exactly.
The horse with the best form is undoubtedly Light Of Dawn, a very expensive Breeze-Up purchase who finished third in a big-field Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot having won at Carlisle on her debut, though she wouldn’t have finished as far as the four lengths in front of seventh-placed Valentina Bella as she did at Ascot - indeed might not have beaten her at all - had that one not been drawn on the other side of the track and then met all the trouble going when denied a clear run between the three-furlong marker and the one-furlong marker while still being held together. That level of form is better than that achieved by the two others to have contested Group races, Agamemnon and Hinata Grey who finished eighth in the Norfolk and third in the Prix du Bois respectively, but as always in these races it pays to keep an open mind and Airbar finished second in a newcomers event here, Primetime Emmy’s stablemate Jorolina ground out a hard-fought win at Chantilly from a horse who’d won on debut at Marseille, the pair well clear, and Kosuma has won both her starts but has been off since May.
Other than being won in 2022 by Jessica Harrington the Prix de Psyche has been dominated over the years by the home contingent and their contingent this time around contains the horse with the best form, albeit marginally, Evita, who finished fifth in the French Oaks staying on from the rear without doing anywhere near as well as the eventual runner-up Pink Panthera who was even further behind her turning for home.
Almost as good as her on Timeform ratings is British challenger Symbol Of Majesty. She looked potentially useful on her first two starts and belatedly confirmed that impression after losing her unbeaten record in a race run at a dawdle at Wolverhampton when finishing second in the Sandringham at Royal Ascot off a mark of 86. The horse who beat her that day, Green Carrera, has since finished second in a listed race at Killarney while the third Rosa Inglesa has since won a handicap off 86 and the fourth has also finished second in listed company in France. This step up to a mile and a quarter seems likely to suit her and that might tip the scales in her favour.
Both Harmonize, who won her only start back at Cagnes sur Mer in January and held a French Oaks entry at one point, and Etincelle, successful at Longchamp last time, are coming back from breaks, while Elle Eclipse only began her racing career as recently as the start of July when winning at Clairefontaine. Grande Baigneuse and Lefteye have both made the frame in listed company, the latter showing better form when splitting British-trained pair Romantic Symphony and Pierian.
This should go to either Evita or Symbol Of Majesty but they are first and second in the market.
Published at 09:25 BST on 02/08/26
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