Blue Rose Cen should take to ground in French 1000 Guineas
Course condition played a major role in the 2000 and 1000 Guineas last weekend in England and is likely to do so again Sunday in France. The Longchamp course was rated heavy on Friday and with rain forecast to continue through the weekend in Paris, that is not likely to change much ahead of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the 2000 Guineas, and the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, the 1000 Guineas.
Testing ground should not be an issue for the most accomplished horse in either race, the filly Blue Rose Cen, who seems sure to be favored in the 1000 Guineas.
As the 2022 flat racing season wore on in Europe and the going at French racecourses became increasingly demanding, Blue Rose Cen thrived. She won four of six starts last year at 2, and over very soft ground last October at Longchamp, she captured France’s most important race for 2-year-old fillies, the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac, by five lengths.
Considered for a trip to Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Blue Rose Cen instead was put away for the winter, coming out of hibernation April 16 to pick up where she’d left off six months earlier. Prepping for the 1000 Guineas, a one-turn mile, Blue Rose Cen won the Prix de la Grotte over heavy Longchamp turf by 1 1/2 lengths, making all the running and cruising to victory under regular rider Aurelian Lemaitre. Lemaitre never has won the Pouliches nor has Blue Rose Cen’s trainer, Christopher Head. The son of former trainer and jockey Freddie Head, Christopher Head began training in 2018.
Blue Rose Cen’s chief competition, if she has any, comes from Ireland in the form of Never Ending Story. With Ryan Moore riding for Aidan O’Brien, Never Ending Story won her prep for the Pouliches but was handed a seven-length defeat by Blue Rose Cen in the Boussac.
O’Brien won the Poulains two years ago with St. Mark’s Basilica, his fifth victory in the race, and has Hans Andersen, Moore named to ride, for Sunday’s contest. Hans Andersen was useful at age 2, though he was only fifth of six capping his campaign in the Group 1 National Stakes. Hans Andersen, by Frankel, looked like an improved 3-year-old winning his season’s debut April 2 at Leopardstown in a seven-furlong Guineas trial. Racing over heavy ground, Hans Andersen settled comfortably in fourth and finished with verve once Moore left his cover for the stretch run.
Even more interesting than Hans Andersen is Valimi, a homebred son of Teofilo out of a strong Aga Khan family. He is trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, who won the Poulains in 2017 and 2018. Given one quiet run at age 2, a win, Valimi returned to action March 28 in a conditions race at Saint-Cloud, finishing second behind a decent colt named Halfway Line. A month later, going a mile over soft turf at Longchamp, Valimi went to the lead and quickened sweetly to beat Halfway Line by 1 1/2 lengths. He may be improving at just the right moment.
Isaac Shelby, shipping from England for trainer Brian Meehan, has some high-level form, including a last-start win in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury. He stays a mile but is unproven over the kind of going he’ll encounter Sunday. Knight, co-trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, was seventh behind Isaac Shelby in the Greenham but was a group stakes winner on heavy going last fall.
Post time for the Poulains is 9:50 a.m. Eastern with the Pouliches scheduled for 10:30.
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