Prix Morny and Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville

A truly excellent card at Deauville today, with two Group One races as the highlights, the Prix Morny for 2yo´s over 1200 metres at 15.40 CET and the Prix Jean Romanet for 4yo and older fillies and mares over 2000 metres at 16.15. The Morny has been dominated by British-trained runners in recent years and this is likely to be the case again, as 5 of the 11 runners are trained across the Channel. This includes ex-Spanish Irish Field (John Hills/ Christophe Soumillon), who has been sold to Hong Kong and is likely to be departing soon for the Far East. The best of the British is probably Richard Hannon´s unbeaten Libranno (Richard Hughes), who scored in good style at Goodwood last time. The Hannon stable have had to endure a couple of shock defeats recently, but are basically still in top form and Libranno looks very smart. The Godolphin runner Al Aasifh (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori) and David Simcock´s Dream Ahead, whose jockey William Buick flies back from the States aft er his victory in the Arlington Million yesterday, should also be considered. Best of the French could be Broox, the mount of Olivier Peslier, whose trainer Eoghan O´Neill is of course Irish.

The Romanet should however be kept at home as Stacelita (Jean-Claude Rouget/ Soumillon) looks almost unbeatable, and her defeat by Midday in the Nassau looks better in the light of the latter´s easy Yorkshire Oaks win last week. However on a line through Midday she does not much in hand of Shalayana (Mikel Delzangles( Gerald Mossé) and Board Meeting (Ellie Lellouche/ Antony Crastus) who had the Cecil filly back in third when finishing 1-2 in last year´s Opera. Ex-German Antara (bin Suroor/ Dettori) and German-owned Reggane (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Maxime Guyon) both look well held. Stacelita, who also has a German pedigree, is top class and has everything in her favour today.

Jean-Claude Rouget should have a profitable afternoon, as he also has an excellent chance of winning the other 2000 metre race for fillies, the Group Three Prix de la Nonette for 3yo´s at 14.35. He has two runners here, Lily of the Valley (Soumillon) and Zagora (Ioritz Mendizibal); although the former has won her last 5 races, we prefer the latter, who showed good speed to win over this CD last time. Never Forget (Lellouche/ Crastus) is also not out of it, while Contredance (Luca Cumani/ Kieren Fallon), 5th in the Nassau last time, looks best of the Brits.

This has been a good meeting for German runners (despite yesterday´s disqualification) and we expect a German-trained winner today, when the much improved Tres Rock Danon( Waldemar Hickst/ Dominique Boeuf) lines up for the Prix Kergorlay (Group Three, 3000 metres, 16.50). Blek (Lellouche/ Crastus) is the obvious danger, as well as Manighar (Cumani/ Fallon), who was trained in France when winning the Chaudenay last year from Los Cristianos (Couetil/ Thomas Huet), while Americain (Royer-Dupré/ Mossé) is also improved, but none of them look impregnable.