Royaumont : a bit of the French Oaks

The Prix de Royaumont (Gr3) is one of those races whose history is full of fillies who become great dams or second dams. It is restricted to 3-year-old fillies over the classic 1m4f trip of the Epsom Oaks (Gr1), which takes place two days earlier this year -the French version, the Prix de Diane Longines (Gr1), has always been run over 2,100m, that is 10 1/2 furlongs.

They are eight to bid for Pollara‘s succession. The titleholder never ran again. Four of the bidders, despite the long distance, ran only once or twice before. Only Pellegrina(Soldier Hollow) arrives undefeated after having won pleasantly for der debut at Saint-Cloud on May 13th.

Dariyza (Dawn Approach) caused a sensation on her victorious debut but she has to prove herself again after finishing third over 2,100m at Chantilly, still ahead of Wonderment, who won the Critérium de Saint-Cloud (Gr1) at 2 and was returning from her Winter spell. Dariyza is out of Group 1 winner Daryakana, also bred by the Aga Khan. She will be partnered by her stablemate Sagama (Sinndar) who has just won a small race at Le Pin-au-Haras.

It’s a very open race. Bletilla (Galileo) has just won her first race over that trip at Compiègne, the well-bred Je Ne Regretterien (Galileo) was only beaten in a slowly run race of four lately. Psara (Invincible Spirit) also wasn’t beaten by far against the colts in the Prix de l’Avre (L). She had beaten Burning Victory (Nathaniel), who won easily since then on the course and finds her again here. Malevra (Le Havre) is tested for the first time over that trip after winning her first race over 2,200 meters in Lyon-Parilly, while Eliade(Teofilo) is the second-best rating in the race behind Psara after taking a second place in a Parisian Listed event lately.

Who said that it takes a crowd to get a good and open race?