Top three from Prix de l'Opera likely to pass

For all the drama and excitement of Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp – in which the top four finishers were three necks apart – the race, at least in the immediate wake of the running, seemingly did little to alter the European cast expected to participate in the Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita.

The winner, We Are, earned an expenses-paid berth in the Filly and Mare Turf under the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In Challenge program, but trainer Freddie Head reportedly is not keen to try the race.

We Are was disqualified from two races for positive tests in 2014 – apparently the result of an enlarged ovarian tumor that resulted in giving her too much testosterone. The tumor has since been removed, but with her being a 3-year-old filly and having been through a challenging year, her connections are more inclined to focus on a 2015 campaign with her.

Ribbons and Hadaatha – second and third – also do not appear likely for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

The best performance in the Prix de l’Opera from a horse under serious consideration for the BC Filly and Mare Turf was that of fourth-place Tarfasha, who was beaten three-quarters of a length. She is trained by Dermot Weld, no stranger to shipping horses to the United States, and the 1 1/4 miles of the Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita is her best distance.

Disappointing for the second straight race was Tapestry, who ran 13th. She is already a Win and You’re In qualifier, having won the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, but whether her connections choose to send her to Santa Anita with poor recent form remains to be seen.

There were no preps of consequence in North America this past week for the Filly and Mare Turf, but that changes this Saturday with the running of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland. A race for 3-year-old fillies, it lost its headliner, Beverly D. Stakes winner Euro Charline, to a bone bruise but still has a solid field.