Diamond Necklace can make history on Sunday at Chantilly
Glamour, elegance and performance: Chantilly Racecourse will host its major meeting of the year on Sunday, 14 June, featuring the Prix de Diane Longines. Run at 4:05 p.m., this Group 1 race has attracted eleven top-class three-year-old fillies. There is one clear favourite: Ireland’s Diamond Necklace, trained by Aidan O’Brien for the Coolmore partners, who remains unbeaten in four starts. She will attempt to complete a treble achieved before her by only four great champions — Allez France, Divine Proportions, Zarkava and Blue Rose Cen: the Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac at two, the Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches at three, and the Prix de Diane Longines one month later. A truly great sporting moment therefore awaits those making their way to Chantilly on Sunday! France’s Green Spirit, runner-up in last year’s Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac and an excellent third in the Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, will try to stand in her way.
The programme for this meeting is particularly attractive and varied. The day will begin at 1:30 p.m. with the Prix de la Reine Blanche Longines, reserved for unraced two-year-old fillies. It will continue at 2:05 p.m. with the Prix de la Reine-Amélie, for amateur female riders and forming a leg of the world championship for these passionate competitors. Then the best four-year-old Arabian thoroughbreds will take centre stage at 2:40 p.m. in the Qatar Derby des Pur-Sang Arabes de 4ans. After the highlight of the Prix de Diane Longines, tribute will be paid at 4:45 p.m. to the great Pawneese, winner of the 1976 edition of the Prix de Diane Longines in the Wildenstein colours and under Yves Saint-Martin. The Listed race bearing her name brings together twelve mares and fillies aged four and over, all seeking an additional line on their future broodmare résumé.
Finally, the meeting will conclude with the Prix Bertrand du Breuil Longines at 6:03 p.m., a Group 3 over the mile for three-year-olds and older, featuring Group 1 winner Sahlan, and with the Prix du Lys Longines at 6:37 p.m., another Group 3 that sets three-year-olds on the road to the Cygames Grand Prix de Paris, the Group 1 traditionally run on 14 July.