Diamond Necklace towers over Nassau field
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The Ireland-based 3-year-old filly Diamond Necklace has made her mark in France, but her first foray into England, on Thursday at Goodwood Racecourse, is widely forecast to yield the same result as Diamond Necklace’s first five races – victory.
On Monday, even before final entries were taken Tuesday, British bookmakers had Diamond Necklace priced well below even money for the Grade 1 Nassau Stakes. The short price comes in great part because Diamond Necklace looks potentially exceptional, and in part because so few worthy challengers have emerged to challenge her in the Nassau, a 1 1/4-mile sex-restricted contest that’s part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.
Diamond Necklace in her most recent start, on June 14, became the second Prix de Diane (French Oaks) winner trained by Aidan O’Brien. O’Brien’s first Diane winner, Joan of Arc, returned to finish third of six as the 2021 Nassau favorite.
While Joan of Arc never had raced in France before the Diane, Diamond Necklace, following two smart wins in Ireland to begin her career, has won three straight Group 1s there. In October, she navigated very soft going to land the one-mile Prix Marcel-Boussac, and in May, making her 3-year-old bow, she blitzed 14 foes capturing the French 1000 Guineas by three lengths. Diamond Necklace rallied up the fence over heavy going in the one-mile Guineas, and in the 1 5/16-mile Diane, run on good-to-firm ground, she rallied wide and got up by just a head.
One might nitpick the competition Diamond Necklace has faced this season. Diane runner-up Pink Panthera has not won above the listed-stakes level and returned to finish second of five in a French Group 2. Diane third Inis Mor also has never won a group race, and while second July 18 in the Irish Oaks, she was beaten four lengths.
Diamond Necklace easily rates as the best 3-year-old in the Nassau and gets nine pounds from her older rivals, including principal foes Friendly Soul and See The Fire.
See The Fire performed considerably below her best when beaten 15 lengths by top-class Ombudsman on June 17 in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, her most recent start. She was a good second in the 2024 Nassau and a tepid third in last year’s renewal run over heavy ground not to her liking.
Friendly Soul looks like the horse to bet. She won six of her first seven starts, the last in that string the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera in October 2024, but missed all of 2025, and returning in May from her layoff stepped in a drainage hole at Haydock Park and had to be pulled up. Friendly Soul suffered through an absolutely abysmal trip over a one-mile distance short of her best, finishing fastest for third last month in the Duke of Cambridge at Royal Ascot. Ten furlongs is her trip, and Friendly Soul just might hang a first defeat on Diamond Necklace.
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