Arqana Chloé : Room for hope
Photo Ashtara : scoopdyga.com
The Arqana Prix Chloé (Gr3) brings together eight 3-year-old fillies over 9 furlongs on Saturday evening at Chantilly. Seven of the eight runners already have been given a rating already. Ashtara (Gio Ponti) is the only one who's still to be rated here. Bred by the Aga Khan and trained by Alain de Royer Dupré, she was bred in the USA and won very easily, by three lengths, for her debut at Fontainebleau over 11 furlongs, three weeks before the Prix de Diane. She will be "shortened" two furlongs here against more experienced fillies. That's how much she's rated by her expert connections!
The race was moved back one week compared to the previous edition, whose winner Crown Walk went on to take the second place in the Prix Rothschild (Gr1), over a mile three weeks later. This Summer, the same target is placed four weeks after this one, rather than three.
The best ratings of the lot, Imperial Charm (Dubawi) and Iconic Choice (Sixties Icon), are both trained across the Channel. They are officially rated at three to twenty-two pounds better than their foes. The former has, however, only run in France this season and just finished third in the Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary (Gr1), a length and a half behind Siyarafina. The latter has failed by less than three lengths in the Thousand Guineas (Gr1) at Newmarket, then more radically in the German version, a Group 2 in which she didn't start well.
The best French on paper, Matematica (Rock of Gibraltar), at 103lbs, has been well beaten twice, most recently on this track in the Prix de Sandringham (Gr3). Her stablemate at Wertheimer & Frère's, Romancière (Dansili) also.
Suphala (Frankel), however, won a Listed event after being outclassed in French 1,000 Guineas (Gr1), on heavy ground. She had previously finished very close to Watch Me, who has since won the Coronation Stakes (Gr1) at Royal Ascot!
Third in the Prix Cleopatre (Gr3) behind the Prix de Diane-placed Etoile, also over 2,100m, Volskha (Le Havre) has not raced since and she completes the field here with the German-trained Pietra Della Luna (Lope de Vega), fifth recently of a Listed race in Baden-Baden.