Joanna

Joanna ran a cracker to finish second in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest run over six and a half furlongs at Deauville on Sunday. Jean-Claude Rouget’s filly stayed on the far side of the track despite breaking well for Christophe Soumillon, who was happy to leave her there alongside the eventual winner Regal Parade. She travelled like the best horse in the race and she looked the most likely winner until well inside the final furlong when she may have been outstayed by Dandy Nicholls’s tough sprinter, going down by just a neck in the end, the two of them pulling well clear of the rest.

This was a huge performance from a three-year-old filly against some hardened and experienced sprinters, and she could be better dropped down to the bare six furlongs now. Her best performances have been over seven furlongs, and she was third in the French Guineas, but she hasn’t raced over six furlongs since she won a listed race at San Siro last June as a juvenile, and she showed real pace here against older sprinters. She is by High Chaparral and she is a half-sister to a middle-distance winner, but she has so much pace that she would be of interest now back over six furlongs.

8th August 2010