Divine Proportions beats boys in Prix Morny

Divine Proportions won one for the girls at Deauville on Sunday when she defeated the colt Layman in the $307,000 Group 1 Prix Morny.

The 2-year-old daughter of Kingmambo, a half sister to the winner of last year's Morny winner Whipper, caught Gary Stevens and the pacesetting Group 3 Prix de Cabourg victor Layman inside the final furlong to record a length and a half victory with the Aidan O'Brien-trained Russian Blue the same margin away in third. Sent off as the 3.30-1 second choice behind Layman, the Pascal Bary-trained filly traveled the the straight six-furlongs on very soft ground under Christophe Lemaire in 1:12.80.

Owned and bred by the Niarchos Family, Divine Proportions has now won all four of her starts against colts, having previously landed the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte on July 25. She could go next against fillies in either the 6-furlong Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket on Sept. 30 or the one-mile Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp on Oct. 3, or she might challenge colts again in the 7-furlong Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (formerly the Grand Criterium) on the same day as the Marcel Boussac.

Sunday's Group 3 Prix de la Nonette turned into a fiasco when the gate holding Trinity's Joy opened late. The riders of Shapira, Polyfirst and Green Swallow missed the false start flag and completed the 1 1/4-mile contest for 3-year-old fillies in that order, but the race was declared void by the stewards.

The riders of the three "finishers", Jiri Palik, Olivier Peslier and Jamie Spencer, were each suspended for four days and fined 1,000 euros ($1,230). Trinity's Joy , Grey Lilas and Green Noon were all pulled up by their riders and will compete in the rerun of the Nonette on Tuesday at Deauville before the start of the first race. Those three will be joined by Polyfirst, but the trainers of Shapira and Green Swallow announced on Sunday that their fillies would not run again on Tuesday. The three fillies who were scratched form the Nonette because of the very soft ground, French Oaks winner Latice, Angara and Speakerine, will not be allowed to participate in Tuesday's rerun.