Females look best in Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud

It could be ladies’ day Sunday at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in France, where the featured Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud sports a trio of females who might have a better chance than the four males entered in the 1 1/2-mile fixture.

Trainer John Gosden has sent two horses for the race, 5-year-old Coronet and 4-year-old Lah Ti Dar, while French trainer Andre Fabre has the streaking Morgan Le Faye entered.

The quartet of males – Aspetar, Marmelo, Thundering Blue, and Ziyad – lack appeal and all tote three pounds more than the females over a course that as of Friday was rated good to soft.

Lah Ti Dar is the best-known name in the field but ran well below her best finishing a distant sixth May 31 in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom Downs. Lah Ti Dar, one of the more promising late-season 3-year-old fillies racing over a true distance of ground in 2018, had eked out a win in the Group 2 Middleton Stakes making her 4-year-old bow and simply might not have progressed this season. Epsom, though, is a tricky course over which she’d never raced, and drawing a line through the Coronation could be the right move.

Frankie Dettori, who has ridden Lah Ti Dar throughout her career, has the mount Sunday on Coronet, who came within a nose of winning the 2018 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud when just beaten by the high-level performer Waldgeist, and a similar performance might get her home Sunday. The concern is that Coronet finished fourth of seven in the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes in her first start this season, and while she pulled hard in that race and might have needed a comeback run, the mare began her 2018 season in strong form without the need of a prep.

Meanwhile, Fabre cut back Morgan Le Faye from staying distances last season to races at about 1 1/4 miles this year and has gotten this Godolphin mare onto a three-race winning streak. Those victories have come at the expense of lesser competition than she faces Sunday but Morgan Le Faye has been winning easily and looks ready both for a step up in class and distance.