Darley Pomone : Dame Malliot wins outside her confort zone

The yielding ground is probably not ​​the imposing Lady Malliot (Champs Elysees)'s cup of tea, homebred by Anthony Oppenheimer and winner of the Darley Prix de Pomone (Gr2), Sunday in Deauville.

Favourite of this race between generations of females over an extended 1m4f, the Ed Vaughan-trained 3yo filly has had to dig deep to finally overcome her rival Love So Deep (Deep Impact), who had followed the short-lived front-runner Peach Tree (Galileo) from the start and had not waited for anyone to take off.

Lady Malliot had beaten Love so Deep by more than seven lengths in their previous showdown in July at Newmarket, and even though the challenger had won a Listed race since then, the yielding ground at Deauville may have upset Lady Malliot. So said her rider Lanfenaco Dettori anyway. The Lancashire Oaks (Gr3) winner Klassique (Galileo) stayed on in third.

Ligne d'Or (Dansili) finished honourably in fourth place.

Hascombe & Valiant Stud, Anthony Oppenheimer's breeding operation in Britain, sold Lady Malliot's dam, Stars In Your Eyes (Galileo), in foal to Lawman, for £ 32,000 at Tattersalls breeding sales last winter.