Plumania

The exceptional winner, Stacelita, apart, Plumania was the one for me to take out of the French Oaks, the Prix de Diane, run at Chantilly last Sunday. Held up at the back of the field in the early stages, Andre Fabre’s filly was still second last of the 12 runners when they entered the short home straight. From there, she stayed on really well on the outside, depriving Celimene of third spot inside the final 50 yards. She was never going to catch Stacelita, but she stayed on better than anything else in the race, and she would have been second in another 50 yards.

This was Plumania’s best performance of the season. On her debut, she had been beaten by Celimene in a Group 3 race at Saint-Cloud in April, and then she had disappointed behind Stacelita in the Prix Saint-Alary on her previous start. There was a danger that she hadn’t trained on from two to three, but this performance put that notion to bed. The daughter of Anabaa first came to attention in the Prix Marcel Boussac last year when, drawn in stall one, she got shuffled back early as the field got stretched out in front of her, she didn’t get a run until the three-furlong pole, and she finished best of all to take fourth spot in the second fastest Marcel Boussac ever run, with top class juveniles Proportional and Elusive Wave, who had travelled in the first five throughout, filling the first two places.

Plumania should be well suited by stepping up to a mile and a half now, and she would be an interesting contender in the Irish Oaks if Andre Fabre decided to supplement her.

14th June 2009