Perfections to wait for Marois

Six Perfections is to miss Sunday’s Group One Prix d’Astarte at Deauville so she can be saved for the Prix Jacques Le Marois on August 15, a race she won last year.

Ironically, one of the reasons given for the Breeders’ Cup Mile heroine staying in training as a four-year-old was that Sunday’s race had been upped in status.

She was runner-up in the mile contest behind Bright Sky last year.

The Niarchos family’s racing manager Alan Cooper said today they would run Denebola in Sunday’s contest, in which last year’s Prix Marcel Boussac winner will take on older fillies including Nebraska Tornado.

Denebola has appeared just twice this season, finishing third in the Prix de la Grotte before falling ill.

She reappeared after a long absence in a Listed race at Deauville earlier this month, finishing second.

“She ran a nice comeback race and will give a good account of herself on Sunday,” said Cooper.

He added that if last Sunday’s Prix Robert Papin victor Divine Proportions comes safely through the Prix Morny at Deauville on August 22, they would envisage going for a third successive win in the Boussac on Arc day on October 3.

The Niarchos team have won with Six Perfections and Denebola in the past two years.

“We still have to get past the Morny, but one would hope with stamina on the dam’s side we would then go for the Boussac,” he said.

Cooper added that star three-year-old colt Bago, already twice a Group One winner this term, is in perfect fettle for his tilt at the International Stakes at York next month.

“He is still on course and developing nicely,” he said.