Dar Re Mi earns BC berth in Pretty Polly

Dar Re Mi led throughout to take the Group 1, $314,000 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday, thus ensuring herself a place in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, a race her owner Andrew Lloyd-Webber is keen to take on.

A 4-year-old daughter of Dubai World Cup winner Singspiel out of Prix Vermeille winner Darara, the 9-2 Dar Re Mi was able to set a slow pace on a yielding surface under Jimmy Fortune. When longshot Beach Bunny roamed up alongside at the quarter-pole, she found something extra and held on gamely to prevail by a short head. The 11-8 favorite Look Here only got going late to run into third place, a length behind Beach Bunny. The 1 1/4-mile trip was perhaps a bit on the short side for Look Here, last year's English Oaks winner. The winning time of 2:14.04 was tepid even considering the state of the ground.

Trained by John Gosden, Dar Re Mi had been second twice previously at the highest level. Lush Lashes, 2 1/4 lengths fourth in the Pretty Polly, had beaten her in last year's Yorkshire Oaks, while Zarkava had taken her measure in the Prix Vermeille. Speaking on behalf of her husband, Madeleine Lloyd-Webber sounded eager to take Dar Re Mi to California for the Breeders' Cup.

"I would love to go" she said. "Why not go globetrotting?"

As the Pretty Polly is part of the Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" series, its winner automatically qualifies for a spot in the Filly and Mare Turf. Look Here's trainer, Ralph Beckett, had already said that his Hernando filly was being aimed at the same race on Nov. 6 at Santa Anita.

* With the ground yielding at the Curragh and more rain predicted for Saturday night, John Oxx withdrew Sea the Stars from Sunday's Irish Derby. The winner of the 2000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby will now go in the 1 1/4-mile Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park on July 4, when he is expected to meet last year's Breeders' Cup Turf winner, Conduit.