Mother Earth travels to Deauville as one to beat in Prix Rothschild
Mother Earth takes her second trip across the English Channel this season to start as the likely favorite in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild on Tuesday at Deauville.
Mother Earth is one of eight 3-year-old fillies entered to face six older horses in this straight-course mile, and her opposition includes the horse, Coeursamba, who defeated Mother Earth in her first French start this season. That race was the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, the French 1000 Guineas, and Couersamba won it as a 38-1 shot by 1 1/4 lengths over favored Mother Earth.
The 3-year-olds get seven pounds from their older rivals in the Rothschild, and the Deauville course as of Monday was listed as good to soft.
Mother Earth, trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien, came to France in the spring after winning the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, and while that’s the filly’s only victory this season, she followed her solid Pouliches with a third-place finish in Alcohol Free’s Group 1 Coronation Stakes win at Royal Ascot and a second behind Snow Lantern in the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes on July 9 at Newmarket.
Alcohol Free was third in the Falmouth but returned to defeat older male rivals last week in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes, a race in which Snow Lantern finished third. Mother Earth has handled a variety of course conditions and runs a straight course as well as she does turns, and therefore seems like a worthy favorite in the Rothschild. Ryan Moore has the mount.
Coeursamba fell back to earth following her Pouliches win with an 11th-place finish in the Prix de Diane, the French Oaks, but despite only beating six and losing to 10 in that start, Coeursamba might not have been a one-hit wonder. She was beaten only four lengths in the Diane and might not really have stayed that race’s 1 5/16-mile distance.
The German filly Novemba finished a commendable fourth in the Coronation, which was run over heavy ground perhaps not ideal for her. Trainer Peter Schiergen has won big races on the international stage before, and Novemba isn’t hopeless Tuesday. In fact, there’s little beyond Mother Earth in the way of established top-level form in the Rothschild.
Another plausible contender is the Aga Khan’s Sagamiyra, who began her career quietly at provincial French racecourses but has graduated to a bigger stage with considerable improvement this season. Sagamiyra, trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, exits her best race yet, a second-place finish behind talented filly Ecrivain in one-turn Group 3 mile at Chantilly.