Coronet gets her Group 1 in Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud

Coronet lost the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud one year ago by a nose, but in Sunday’s 2019 renewal of this Group 1 fixture at Saint-Cloud racecourse she won it by a head.

Touched off at the finish by Waldgeist last summer, Coronet was up late under Frankie Dettori, catching longshot Ziyad just before the finish with Lah Ti Dar, Coronet’s John Gosden-trained stablemate, just a nose farther back in third.

Dettori had ridden both Coronet and Lah Ti Dar in their most recent starts and was on the right horse Sunday. The victory was especially meaningful for a 5-year-old mare surely in the later stages of her racing career who finally notched a Group 1 win in her 16th start. The hole in Coronet’s resume had less to do with her capability to winning a race at the top level than the fact she consistently has run into many of the best middle-distance horses in Europe, with two-time Arc winner Enable, who has beaten Coronet three times, atop a list that also includes Sea of Class, Magical, and Poet’s Word.

Coronet, owned by the Denford Stud, is by Dubawi out of Approach, by Darshaan, and she is likely to make her next start, her trainer said, in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.

Morgan Le Faye, the 13-10 favorite, finished a one-paced sixth of seven.