Irish-trained Diamond Necklace, bred in France, dominates the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches by a wide margin!
EMIRATES POULE D’ESSAI DES POULICHES
Irish-trained Diamond Necklace, bred in France, dominates the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches by a wide margin!
The Irish filly Diamond Necklace gave her rivals absolutely no chance in the Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches! She completed the kind of double only true champions achieve at ParisLongchamp: the Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac at two and the Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches at three.
To build her victory, the filly trained in Ireland by master trainer Aidan O’Brien and owned by the Coolmore partners — one of the world’s leading commercial breeding operations — raced patiently on the inside, close to the pace. Turning into the home straight, she dived into the open stretch: exactly the same tactic used just minutes earlier by Rayif to win the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. Irish jockey Ryan Moore therefore took inspiration from the ride produced by his French counterpart Mickaël Barzalona! A smart move, as on very soft ground it is best not to cover unnecessary extra ground.
During the race, French filly The Last Dance, trained in Maisons-Laffitte by Yann and Carlos Lerner, was positioned directly behind Diamond Necklace, but her jockey Christophe Soumillon was forced to switch around several fillies before launching his effort wide on the outside. She finished second ahead of Green Spirit, who produced a remarkable late run along the rail after still being last turning for home. Her jockey Maxime Guyon, retained rider for Wertheimer & Frère, had little choice but to settle near the rear early on, as his filly had drawn stall 14 on the outside. Under those circumstances, it was difficult to secure a good position in the field.
The first two fillies home were both bred in France, in Normandy: Diamond Necklace at Écurie des Monceaux (Henri Bozo) and The Last Dance at Haras du Cadran (Pierre Talvard) for Écurie Mélanie. Both were purchased as yearlings at the Arqana August Sale in Deauville in 2024: Diamond Necklace for a record €1.7 million and The Last Dance for €105,000.
The official result
EMIRATES POULE D’ESSAI DES POULICHES
1st DIAMOND NECKLACE (Ryan Lee Moore)
2nd THE LAST DANCE (Christophe Soumillon)
3rd GREEN SPIRIT (Maxime Guyon)
Time: 1’40’’73. Margins: 3 – 1 1/2 - Neck.
Quotes from the connections
Aidan O’Brien, trainer of Diamond Necklace (1st), Ireland
“I’m delighted. [Paying tribute to the teamwork within the stable:] Jamie has done a huge amount of work with this filly. Rory as well. And Bretty, who rides her every morning, Rachel who works with her. Then there’s Trevor and Siobhan, who handled her today… There are so many people involved. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone. Ryan [Moore, her jockey], who was riding her in a race for the first time, gave her a brilliant ride.
She’s very much like her sire St Mark’s Basilica. She has improved enormously from two to three. She already showed a lot of class last year under Christophe Soumillon. She has plenty of natural speed and great ease in the way she does things. We’re over the moon for everyone involved. Obviously, I’m delighted for John and Sue [Magnier], Michael and Doreen [Tabor], Derek and Gay [Smith], and George and Emily [von Opel — the Coolmore partners]. They are the people investing. They do all this for all of us and keep the whole machine going.
I haven’t really had the chance yet to speak with Ryan after today’s race about how far she might stay. She handled the ground very well. She does it all so naturally… Her sire was the same.
We had in mind either the Prix de Diane or the Irish Oaks, depending on what the partners wanted to do. What can I say? We’re simply very lucky to have her.”
Yann Lerner, trainer (with his father Carlos) of The Last Dance (2e), Maisons-Laffitte (78)
“For quite a while now Christophe [Soumillon] has been telling me that we wouldn’t beat Diamond Necklace. So there you go: we’ll say that The Last Dance beat the rest of the field… Today, I really believed in her. Honestly, last time I was very disappointed with the way she won because I haven’t trained many fillies like her. Today was top-class!
In the mornings she’s a very calm filly. Today, seeing her in the paddock before the race gave me confidence. Once again, she was only average coming out of the stalls. But she produced a very good performance. Now we’ll see how she comes out of the race. The winner will probably head to the Diane and I think she may still be unbeatable there. So we’ll see what we decide to do.
Every year, we buy yearlings more or less on our own. And we’re fortunate to have many loyal clients supporting us. Over the past few years, Mr Gilibert, Mr Ghrghar, Jean-Michel Lebrun… Sometimes the good yearling runs for one owner, sometimes another. The important thing is for the stable to be successful and for everything to keep moving forward.
For us, this result also means a lot because she was bred by Pierre Talvard [Haras du Cadran]. I also rode her dam in races myself. So she’s quite a special filly to me. And finally, she’s the last foal out of her dam. So I’m very attached to her.”
Pierre-Yves Bureau, racing manager of Wertheimer & Frère, owner of Green Spirit (3e), Chantilly (60)
“The race unfolded very well. We had a difficult draw (stall 14), which forced us to settle further back than ideal, but she produced a magnificent finishing effort. We are delighted with her performance. The next target could be the Prix de Diane Longines (Group 1). We’ll see how she comes out of the race before making a decision.”