Blue Bolt will look to cement her claims as Europe's dominant filly over a mile in a fascinating Prix Rothschild (G1) Aug. 2 at Deauville Racecourse, in which, just over three weeks on from the pair finishing 1-2 in the Falmouth Stakes (G1) at Newmarket Racecourse, she again faces the 3-year-old Precise.
Juddmonte's progressive 4-year-old had posted a career best when routing her rivals in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot and improved another 5 pounds in beating Precise by 2 lengths, after which retained rider Colin Keane paid tribute to the daughter of Blue Point as "very uncomplicated."
Looking ahead to her Deauville assignment, trainer Andrew Balding said: "She won well in the Falmouth and we've been very happy with her since, so I'm hoping she can put in the same sort of performance. Any group 1 takes some winning but she seems in great form and takes the traveling well so fingers crossed."
In the Falmouth, Ryan Moore was never able to take close order on Precise behind pacemaker Venosa after being bumped by Evolutionist leaving the gates.
Asked if the early scrimmaging might have cost her later in the race, Aidan O'Brien said: "She did (get a bump). I think it did. She probably lost a couple of lengths, so all those things might help her.
"She seems to be in suitable form since the last day, and everything has gone well with her since. We think she could improve on her Newmarket run."
will Precise find necessary improvement?
Following a second defeat to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon singles final, Andy Roddick famously said of the two players' battles on court: "It's only a rivalry if I start winning."
The bookmakers have priced up Blue Bolt at odds-on, while Precise is as big as 5-2, a disparity which might be accurate in describing the Juddmonte filly's dominance when they met at Newmarket last month, but which does not allow for the possibility that Precise could have more to offer under different circumstances.
The decision to try again at a mile with Precise, when O'Brien's immediate postrace comments raised the option of stepping up in trip, suggests that either Ryan Moore offered some extra insight afterwards into why it would be worth trying again—potentially the bump coming out of the stalls was more costly than most observers are allowing for—or else the Ballydoyle team believes there was some other reason for her to have underperformed in the Falmouth relative to what she had shown in the Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) and the Coronation Stakes (G1).
An alternative interpretation is that Precise has had to come to Deauville because the race that might have suited her better, the Nassau Stakes (G1) over 1 1/4 miles at Goodwood Racecourse, was already earmarked for Diamond Necklace.
And the fact is that Deauville's pancake-flat straight mile places more emphasis on speed than stamina, so if your interpretation is that Blue Bolt is more of a pure miler than Precise, then all other things being equal, the result should be the same.
Evolutionist is the third part of the Falmouth equation, and she could easily be better than she was able to show at Newmarket, having lost a shoe before the race, as well as being the filly that jinked right and bumped Precise.
She would be of interest with a touch more give in the ground and, although Deauville officials put plenty of water on the track earlier in the week, some combination of good and good to firm is the expected going.
