Europe: Highfield Princess continues run of success

The three trial races on Sunday at Longchamp for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe probably will have little impact on the Arc, while in Ireland, Highfield Princess continued her run of sprint success, a 2-year-old filly’s star rose, and Kyprios maintained his position as Europe’s top stayer.

In France, the 5-year-old gelding Iresine, getting the soft ground he prefers, closed from the rear of the field and scored a sharp win in the Group 2 Prix Foy. But geldings cannot run in the Arc, so Iresine obviously will not be participating in the Oct. 2 fixture.

Three-year-old Simca Mille won the Group 2 Prix Niel for 3-year-olds, further franking the form of the Grand Prix de Paris in July, when Onesto, who was second Saturday in the Irish Champion, beat Simca Mille. Simca Mille has not been made eligible to the Arc, however, and connections said following the Niel that they were unlikely to supplement the colt. Japan Derby winner Do Deuce, the Niel favorite, made a looming move a quarter-mile from home, but flattened late to finish fourth, hardly an ideal run into the Arc.

And in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille for older fillies and mares, Sweet Lady led all the way for a 12-1 upset under Gregory Benoist. Sweet Lady could take her place in the Arc but figures to be something like a 30-1 shot in the race. La Parisienne, second behind Nashwa in the Prix de Diane, the French Oaks, finished encouragingly for third, while Epsom Oaks winner Tuesday ran decently for fourth.

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The Niel was run at a shockingly faster pace than either of the two Arc trials, the leader going his first 1600 meters there 5.72 seconds faster than in the Vermeille and 6.4 seconds faster than in the Foy, according to Trakus. Final time for the Niel was 2:32.81, while the Vermeille went in 2:35.50 and the Foy in 2:36.46. Iresine got his final 400 meters in the Foy in 22.55 seconds, while Simca Mille, by comparison, needed 24.78 second to cover his final 400 meters. Tuesday in the Vermeille posted the fastest single 200-meter split among all three races when she went her penultimate such sectional in 11.03 before losing some steam and finishing her final 200 in 11.87.

In Ireland, Highfield Princess added the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes over a straight five furlongs to her previous wins this summer in the Group 1 Nunthorpe, another five-furlong dash, and the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest over 6 1/2 furlongs. Highfield Princess already had a Breeders’ Cup Challenge win in the Nunthorpe and got another on Sunday, and her connections plan to take advantage of the automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Turf Sprint and travel expenses from England to Keeneland.

Highfield Princess, trained by John Quinn, won over soft going at The Curragh on Sunday after handling a good-firm course in the Nunthorpe and good-to-soft ground in the de Gheest. Racing prominently from the start under Jason Hart, Highfield Princess cruised easily away from the chasing pack when Hart took her to the fence and asked his mount for her best with a furlong remaining. She’ll be a formidable rival for Golden Pal and Campanelle in the BC Turf Sprint.

No horse was more impressive Sunday at The Curragh than Tahiyra, the Dermot Weld-trained 2-year-old filly who won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes under jockey Chris Hayes. Tahiyra, a 5 1/2-length debut winner at Galway in her lone previous race, flew past Meditate in the final half-furlong to beat the favored filly by 2 1/4 lengths, with Meditate, winner of her first two starts, more than four lengths in front of third-place Eternal Silence. The Moyglare Stud is a BC Challenge race linked to the Juvenile Fillies Turf, but Tahiyra now is early favorite for the 1000 Guineas in 2023 and likely has too much potential to make the trip to Kentucky this fall. She’s an Aga Khan homebred by Siyouni out of Tarana, by Cape Cross.

Sons of trainer Aidan O’Brien sent out the one-two finishers in the Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes for 2-year-olds, where Joseph O’Brien-trained Al Riffa beat Donnacha O’Brien-trained Proud and Regal by 1 1/4 lengths. Al Riffa, by Wootton Bassett, was coming off a good maiden win at The Curragh and finished willingly through soft going that odds-on favorite Aesop’s Fables, who was fourth, might have disliked.

While Aesop’s Fables failed at a short price for Aidan O’Brien, odds-on Kyprios came through for him and jockey Ryan Moore in the Group 1 Irish St. Leger, though Kyprios had to work a bit to hold off a challenge from Hamish, whom Kyprios was meeting for the first time. The winning margin at the end of the 1 3/4-mile contest was three-quarters of a length, and Kyprios, a 4-year-old by Galileo, had won his fifth race in a row, adding the Irish St. Leger to Group 1 staying wins in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and the Goodwood Cup.

The Group 1 St. Leger in England – restricted, unlike the Irish version, to 3-year-olds – was moved to Sunday from Saturday after the death of Queen Elizabeth II earlier this week. Eldar Eldarov was a decisive two-length winner of the 1 3/4-mile contest at Doncaster, giving jockey David Egan his first Classic win. Haskoy finished second by a half-length over favored New London but was placed fourth for interference in a controversial decision quickly appealed by Haskoy’s connections. Eldar Eldarov, a Dubawi colt trained by Roger Varian, like Onesto and Simca Mille was coming out of the Grand Prix de Paris, where he had finished fourth.