Sodden ground puts Prix Morny up for grabs
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The Group 1 Prix Morny came up a hot race this year, but it’s an open question how any of its top entrants will cope with testing ground Sunday at Deauville Racecourse.
The course as of Friday was rated heavy, and thunderstorms Friday night were forecast to give way to light rain early Saturday morning. The ground should dry somewhat before the Sunday card, but it will be nothing like the going that stakes winners in England earlier this summer encountered.
Nine 2-year-olds were entered in the six-furlong straight-course sprint, part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, offering the winner automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and travel expenses to Santa Anita.
The Morny shares top billing Sunday with the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet, a 10-furlong contest for fillies and mares headed by Via Sistina and Above the Curve.
Aidan O’Brien, Ryan Moore, and Coolmore won the 2022 Morny with Europe’s top 2-year-old sprinter, Blackbeard, and could have the favorite again Sunday in River Tiber. River Tiber, by Wootton Bassett, has started his career with three wins, most recently beating 19 rivals in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. River Tiber beat Army Ethos by a neck, and while the runner-up, like the winner, has yet to run back, third-place Bucanero Fuerte last weekend in Ireland won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes by four lengths. While the going at Ascot was good, River Tiber did win his debut over soft ground, overwhelming overmatched maidens at Navan.
The first- and third-place finishers from the Group 2 Norfolk at Royal Ascot, a five-furlong race, also are entered. Valiant Force, an American-bred by Malibu Moon, hasn’t started since beating 13 in the Norfolk and was second of five over soft ground debuting at The Curragh. Norfolk third Elite Status has run back, shipping to Deauville for the six-furlong Prix de Cabourg on July 30 and running his soft-turf mark to two wins from two starts with a facile victory.
Jasour went well on a good-to-firm course with a sharp win July 13 in the Group 2 July Stakes, a six-furlong dash at Newmarket, while the filly Sacred Angel is still another England group-race winner, having captured the Group 3 Princess Margaret at Ascot.
But the French filly Ramatuelle could be the horse of the hour. From the hot barn of Christopher Head, who has partnered with Aurelien Lemaitre for several big-race successes the last two seasons, Ramatuelle is a head away from being unbeaten in four starts. Another American-bred, a Justify filly whose ownership includes former NBA star Tony Parker, Ramatuelle has wins over soft and good-to-soft going and in her most recent start, the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin on July 16 at Chantilly, she was utterly dominant.
In the Romanet, Via Sistina, beaten favorite when last seen five weeks ago in the one-mile Falmouth Stakes, will appreciate getting back out to 1 1/4 miles, though she might not appreciate a very soft course. Above the Curve coped with similar ground finishing third last fall in the Prix de l’Opera, and while trained in Ireland by Joseph O’Brien, she has done all her best work in French races.
◗ Ace Impact, runaway winner of the French Derby earlier this summer, solidified his position as early favorite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with a useful win Wednesday in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano, a 1 1/4-mile contest at Deauville, his first start since the French Derby.
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