Prix de l'Opera likely to provide runners for BC Filly-Mare Turf
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Warm Heart might be the best European female who winds up in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita in November, and she is having a quiet weekend training in Ireland, but Sunday’s Prix de l’Opera often produces Filly and Mare Turf runners and is likely to do so again this year.
The Group 1 contest over 1 1/4 miles drew a dozen entrants, none, to date, anything near the quality of Tarnawa, who won the Opera and the Filly and Mare Turf in 2020. But, like Tarnawa, horses coming from Ireland to the Opera could have a major say.
Lumiere Rock, trained by Joseph O’Brien, had a breakout performance Sept. 10 in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes at The Curragh. Beaten more than three lengths by Warm Heart in the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot, a race run over good-to-firm going, 3-year-old Lumiere Rock then raced twice over softer courses before finding firmer footing again in the Blandford. By Saxon Warrior, Lumiere Rock narrowly was beaten by Opera runner Jannah Rose traveling to France for the Prix Alec Head at Deauville over the summer. The course there was labeled very soft, and Lumiere Rock can turn the tables over better ground Sunday.
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A distant second to Lumiere Rock in the Blandford was Jackie Oh, Warm Heart’s Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate, and like Lumiere Rock, Jackie Oh is a progressive 3-year-old.
“Regressive” may better describe Opera favorite Blue Rose Cen. A five-length winner of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac on the 2022 Arc undercard, Blue Rose Cen impressively won both the French 1000 Guineas over one mile and the French Oaks over 1 5/16 miles, but while her defeat in the Nassau Stakes at quirky Goodwood might be excused for various reasons, a flat fifth as the odds-on favorite in the Prix Vermeille three weeks ago at Longchamp is more concerning.
Prix de la Foret
Kinross is on track to win the Group 1 Prix de la Foret for the second year in a row and given how well he performed finishing third in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Mile, perhaps another trip to America is in the cards.
The Foret, run over seven furlongs around one right-handed turn, is the only Group 1 Sunday at Longchamp that’s not part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, which is odd because the race typically produces BC Mile runners. Space Blues and the great Goldikova won the Foret before capturing the BC Mile.
Kinross, a 6-year-old gelding trained in England by Ralph Beckett, pulled a rare double last fall, returning on short rest after the Foret to land the British Champions Sprint at Ascot. Kinross won over six furlongs at Ascot because deep, laboring ground gave his stamina a chance to shine. Short sprints over firmer footing are not Kinross’s thing at this point in his career, and he lost two such races to start his 2023 campaign before a pair of seven-furlong wins in the Lennox at Goodwood and the City of York at York.
Three-year-old filly Sauterne gets six pounds from Kinross and probably is his primary rival. Sauterne has been steadily racing without a break since November but showed no sign of weariness posting a career best beating top French 3-year-old male miler Big Rock in the Prix du Moulin. Sauterne probably is as capable over seven furlongs as one mile and has handled all manner of course conditions.
◗ The Aidan O’Brien-trained Unquestionable was getting late-week support with British bookmakers, but the French 2-year-old Beauvatier could be a standout in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.
Beauvatier has started his career with four wins and has caught the eye in every performance. The colt, by Lope de Vega, relaxes early in his races and finishes them with a wicked turn of foot, winning with his ears pricked. The only horse to get close to him was Ramatuelle, whom Beauvatier beat by a head in May. Ramatuelle has won three of his other four starts, his lone defeat in that string a head loss to Vandeek in the Group 1 Prix Morny.
Beauvatier beat Zabiari by 1 1/4 lengths in July at Deauville, but Zabiari did appear to be an improved colt winning the one-mile Prix de Chenes on Sept. 7 at Longchamp.
The Lagardere at seven furlongs and the one-mile, Group 1 Prix Marcel-Boussac for 2-year-old fillies both are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.
Opera Singer, a Justify filly trained by O’Brien, was the antepost favorite for the Boussac. Darnation has better form than Opera Singer, with three wins in a row, including a tally at Goodwood over Carla’s Way, who scored a sharp win Friday in the Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket, but Darnation has done all her best work over softer going than she’ll find Sunday.
◗ The five-furlong straight-course Prix de l’Abbaye could be the most competitive Group 1 on the Sunday card at Longchamp, with 19 runners entered in a race that’s a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In linked to the BC Turf Sprint.
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