Dubawi beats Divine Proportions

Divine Proportions suffered her first loss in 10 starts Sunday at Deauville when Dubawi powered his way to victory for Godolphin in the Group 1, $744,000 Prix Jacques le Marois.

Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Divine Proportions was rated nicely under Christophe Lemaire but came up empty when asked to quicken and finished fourth, 4 3/4 lengths behind Dubawi.

Jockey Kerrin McEvoy had Dubawi in perfect position throughout, tracking the two rabbits, Council Member and Semarang, in third. Racing in the center of the straight course, where the going was best, Dubawi led just inside the quarter pole and finished strongly to defeat the late-running Whipper by 1 1/2 lengths, with Valixir another three-quarters of a length back in third. Off at 4-1, Dubawi covered the mile on good to soft ground in 1:37.90.

Winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas, Dubawi emulated the victory of his sire, Dubai Millenium, who won the Marois in 1999.

Divine Proportions came into the Marois, Europe's richest one-mile race, with five Group 1 victories, including the French 1000 Guineas and the French Oaks. Following the French Oaks, run at 1 5/16 miles, there was speculation that trainer Pascal Bary and the Niarchos family's racing manager, Alan Cooper, would try Divine Proportions at 1 1/2 miles this autumn, but those plans were shelved in favor of sending her back to a mile for the remainder of the season. Divine Proportions will now go straight to the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Dubawi, meanwhile, has emerged as Europe's leading miler. He had been inconvenienced by fast ground at Newmarket on April 30, when he was fifth in the 2000 Guineas. At The Curragh on May 21, a bit of ease in the ground aided his victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas. Dubawi's next out, the June 4 Epsom Derby at 1 1/2 miles, proved a bit too far, and he finished third, beaten eight lengths. His Marois triumph is all the more impressive in that it came off an absence of 10 weeks.

All of the Marois principals have been mentioned as Breeders' Cup Mile candidates. As a result, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have reshuffled their antepost prices. They now list Dubawi as the 3-1 favorite, with Divine Proportions at 6-1, Soviet Song 7-1, Proclamation 8-1, and Rakti 8-1.

* At Cologne on Sunday, Darsalam became the first horse trained in the Czech Republic to win a Group 1 race in Europe when he defeated British invader Bandari by five lengths in the $192,000 Rheinland-Pokal. Off at 11-1, Darsalam got the 1 1/2 miles on very soft ground in 2:43.24. Malinas was third, Nicaron fourth, and Simonas fifth. Darsalam is trained by Arslangirej Savujev.