Having had three Group One races in Britain in the last eight days, I guess we can't complain that another country is staging the top-class racing today. Still, it's yet another Sunday when British-trained horses are contesting a big race overseas while the action being staged at home is distinctly moderate.
I really wish we could stage some high-quality racing on Sundays as well as Saturdays here and I don't understand why that doesn't happen. Our sport could do with all the publicity it can get but the action we stage on a Sunday hardly ever makes any serious claim on the next day's headlines.
So today we're looking across the Channel to Deauville, where they're running the Group One Prix Rothschild (formerly the Prix D'Astarte), a mile race for fillies which has been blessed with an excellent field.
It's easy to see like Darjina's chances. True, she hasn't shown her best form on her three visits to Ascot, but her form figures in her native France are 111112, including three Group One wins, and this is her first chance in a race confined to females since she won last year's renewal.
When she took the Prix du Moulin last September, she beat Ramonti by two lengths, with George Washington, Linngari and Archipenko further back. That was Ramonti's only defeat in a sequence of five Group One outings, so the form could hardly be stronger.
But Darjina has lost five on the bounce since then and, although she's run with credit in at least four of those races, I wonder if all that international travel has taken the edge off her.
At almost 6-1 on the leading exchange, I prefer Nahoodh (2.15), who gets similar conditions here to those that prevailed when she won the Falmouth last time. This strong finisher ought to have beaten Natagora when getting no run in the 1,000 Guineas and can prove it here.
On this side of La Manche, the best bet looks like Cheveton (3.50) at Newbury. This in-form sprinter is only 4lb higher for his latest success at Ascot and must go close. He's drifed out to 11-2 on Betfair, which I take to be concern about the ground -- it's good to firm in places, whereas Cheveton's fine recent form has been on ground with some give. But Newbury is unlikely to have any jar in it today and in any case Cheveton has yet to show any actual dislike for a faster surface, so he's surely overpriced.
1.55pm Hi Socialwanderer
Fair point about the Chester 3.25, though a man cannot live by Listed races alone. Good luck with Look Busy -- that's a big price about a prolific winner, though stall 12 would put me off. Trainer Alan Berry is certainly in form and it's not often you get a chance to say that.
2.30pm Goldikova wins the Prix Rothschild
That's another Group One for Freddie Head, who sent Marchand D'Or over to win the July Cup a few weeks ago. This has to go down as a bit of an upset, considering the quality of the fillies she's beaten, but Goldikova had been placed in the French 1,000 Guineas (when she was poorly drawn and stumbled leaving the stalls) and the French Oaks. She warmed up for this with a straightforward win at odds-on in a Group Three and you've done well if you backed her on such a step up in class.
Darjina took a lot of rousting to find her stride but was flying at the finish and would have been in front in another stride or two. This was another cracking effort but it's also six defeats in a row and she's proving expensive to follow this year. Natagora ran her race in third but Nahoodh was disappointing in a distant fourth, having failed to settle through the early part of the race.
4pm Cheveton gets it done
The money eventually came for this prolific winner and he was sent off the 9-2 favourite before being pushed out for a one-length success by Ryan Moore. That looked like hard work and I don't know if I'd care to line up behind him next time but he was certainly the value today.
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