PRIX DE LA VALLEE D'AUGE - Drazinda

There were a lot of races that I could have covered this weekend at Deauville. I still maintain that I will find a horse to end Mazzala’s unbeaten record, but I have to admit that he was very impressive when making it 4 wins from 4 starts in the Prix de Reux. Kalimaat looks to be a very useful prospect for the Fabre team after she won with ease on her racecourse debut on Sunday in the Prix de Falaise and of course, Samangan finally delivered on his earlier promise to win the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest for Francis-Henri Graffard and the Aga Khan Stud. I could also throw in Distant Storm returning to form too and they would all be worthy of some column inches. However, I’ve had a hunch about DRAZINDA for some time and whilst her runs at Royal Ascot and in the Prix Yacowlef were frustrating, the penny appears to have finally dropped after her victory in Saturday’s Listed Prix de la Vallee D’Auge over the minimum trip.

What she actually did was pay a huge compliment to the form of Crownbreaker and through him Wild Blossom, but in her own way Drazinda has announced herself with this performance. Drawn widest in stall 8, Mickael Barzalona had obviously made up his mind that he didn’t want to try and make his challenge on the far side of the field. Instead, he sought cover for his filly and moved her in behind the leaders, gradually making his way across to the stands side through the middle furlongs of the race. This was a risky strategy and it certainly allowed the likes of Vollering and Social Symbol to get the first run, but nit also helped Drazinda to settle. Once pulled to the stands side and given her head, she picked up very smartly with the stands rail to run against and made up the bets part of 3 lengths inside the final 200m to ultimately win quite snugly. An overall time of 56.30s was rapid and having recorded 3 consecutive sub 11s furlongs in the middle part of the race, even behind the leaders Drazinda was flying along. However, when she needed to quicken she did and a race best penultimate split of 10.37s, at a top speed of 68.9 km/h (Source: McLloyd) was incredible. The fast ground clearly pays a part in that, but in a race run with average furlong splits of 11.26s, this was a superb finishing effort. The daughter of Sioux Nation is getting better with each run and now that she is able to settle behind a fast pace, the best may be yet to come. Given the long, hot and most importantly dry summer we have had, the ground seems unlikely to turn against her any time soon and a shot at a better race than this, with her entry in the Prix Morny the most obvious target, does not seem beyond the realms of possibility.