Deauville: Elusive Kate eyes Prix Rothschild repeat

Elusive Kate is a Group 1 winner in England, having won the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket on July 12, but her best results have come in journeys to France.

A 4-year-old Kentucky-bred filly by Elusive Quality, Elusive Kate has won four stakes in France in the last two years.

Elusive Kate won the Group 1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville, France, last July, and will be favored to win the one-mile turf race for fillies and mares again on Sunday. The $396,000 Prix Rothschild drew a strong field of 12 and will be Elusive Kate’s sixth trip to France. Her only loss was a third against males in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville last August.

In Sunday’s race, Elusive Kate will be ridden by regular rider William Buick for trainer John Gosden. Buick was aboard for the Falmouth, and Elusive Kate’s first start of the year, a fourth in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes against males at Royal Ascot in June.

Owned by Teruya Yoshida, Elusive Kate has won 6 of 13 starts.

Her competition in the Prix Rothschild includes Grace Lady, the winner of the Group 2 Prix Corrida at Saint-Cloud in May; Duntle, who won the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot; and Giofra, who was third in the Falmouth Stakes.

The race drew the first three finishers of the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham for 3-year-old fillies at Chantilly on June 2 – Peace Burg, Topaze Blanche and Kenhope, who was second in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot two weeks later.

◗ In Sunday’s Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen over 1 1/4 miles on turf in Munich, Hunter’s Light, seventh in the Dubai World Cup in March, tries to win his first Group 1 race since the third round of the Maktoum Challenge.