19 June 2018

French Connection

This Siyouni filly's last trip across the Channel was at the ned of May when she won the Group 1 Gurkha Coolmore - Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp. The Karl Burke-trained Laurens obviously impressed connections sufficiently to let have another crack at a French contest. Yesterday the three-year-old lined up with twelve rivals in the he Prix de Diane at Chantilly, known as the French Oaks. Lauren, with PJ McDonald aboard, got off to a swift start from her wide berth in stall 12. Throughout the race she was trapped wide of the track but, nevertheless, was still travelling very strongly a the field neared the top of the home straight. With two furlongs to go, the former jump jockey had a bit of work to do but Laurens had no problem thwarting all challengers to claim a popular victory.

Flattering will get you everywhere!

The Aidan O'Brien-trained Flattering, winner of this Group Three prize three times in the last four years, was a 5/2 chance in the Munster Oaks at Cork yesterday. This Galileo filly, ridden by Seamie Heffernan, got off to a good start and soo found herself heading the nine-strong field. The major threat came from Bloomfield, trained by Willie McCreery, in the home straight but Flattering had enough in reserve to deal with that challenge and won the race by a length,

A Sea Breeze

The Johnnie Lewis Memorial British EBF Stakes at Newbury proved another step in the learning process for this Sea The Stars filly, whose connections had decided should to skip the Investec Oaks at Epsom as she lacked sufficient experience. The decision proved sound as the William Haggas-trained Sea Of Class achieved a comfortable win. James Doyle set the three-year-old filly a pretty stiff task, allowing her to remain way back behind the leaders. Sea The Class had no difficulty whatsoever making up ground when asked to so so. The eventual runner-up, Mrs Sippy, looked like being a serious threat but Sea Of Class quickened effortless and claimed the prize by two lengths.