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‘She’s very classy – I’ve not trained one like her before’.
Jean-Claude Rouget has big plans for Raabihah after Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's filly took the Group Three Prix de Psyche Sky Sports Racing at Deauville on Saturday.
The 4-9 favourite returned to winning ways with an impressive three-and-a-half-length victory under Cristian Demuro.
The daughter of Sea The Stars was striking at Group level for the first time, having finished fourth to Fancy Blue in the Prix de Diane last month, after winning her first two starts.
"I am pleased to see this filly win so easily – because we were disappointed after the Prix de Diane," Rouget told Sky Sports Racing.
"She was on the outside there, but Cristian couldn't do anything else.
"It was bad luck that day, but it was a big race.
"Now we can hope great things for the autumn.
"For me, she is a champion filly. She started very late, but she's very classy – I've not trained one like her before, which is why I was so down after the Prix de Diane.
"She will go to the Vermeille (next) – and if she wins easily she could go to the Arc after that."
Get Shirty took advantage of a drop in class to win the Listed Prix du Carrousel – and book a possible Melbourne Cup bid this year.
Christophe Ferland's 9-2 shot got the better of Ashrun by a length and three-quarters, with Charlie Appleby's 11-8 favourite Ghostwatch back in third.
Get Shirty, previously a good third at Group Two level back in June at Chantilly, was positioned in third by Christophe Soumillon – tracking the pace set by Alkuin, before taking over in the final two furlongs to win comfortably.
Newmarket hope Ghostwatch came under pressure entering the straight and could not pick up the first two but stayed on to be beaten just over two lengths.
Ferland said: "He's a lovely horse – he's proved, over a long distance, he's really good.
"Last time, he did really well in a Group Two, hit the front very strongly and got beat by good horses.
"He is getting more mature."
The trainer is already mapping out a programme which he hopes will lead to Australia.
"Now he's on the way to the (Prix) Kergolay – he will stay here for that," said Ferland.
"We'll discuss with Christophe if he can go further – but my idea, if Covid lets us travel, he's a horse I'd like to send to Australia for the Melbourne Cup."
Appleby had to settle for minor honours for a second time in the Group Three Prix Six Perfections Sky Sports Racing, as his Newmarket winner Wedding Dance was outgunned by a stylish performance from 11-10 favourite See The Rose.
Andre Fabre's juvenile filly extended her unbeaten sequence to three, challenging the front-running Wedding Dance a furlong out and producing an eyecatching turn of foot to win by three-quarters of a length under Pierre-Charles Boudot.
Robert Cowell's Rocket Action was also out of luck in the Listed Prix du Cercle – Sauternes's Cup, beaten only a short neck into second by Corinne Barande-Barbe's 8-1 shot Air De Valse.
Cowell's four-year-old grey went off the 5-2 favourite under Soumillon but was short of room at a crucial stage – and although gaining fast in the final furlong, the post came too soon.
