PARISLONGCHAMP on Saturday and Sunday featured eight Group 1 races, three of which were confined to fillies and mares. That left three open to all. The Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was run for the last time with geldings excluded. The merits of this decision will be debated for some time to come. What is not a subject of scrutiny is that the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere also does not permit geldings.

The main argument regarding the change to the Arc concerns the race as a stallion-making contest, and whether the admission of geldings will damage that reputation. People argue that the inclusion of fillies is not a problem, and further suggest that if the best colt is not able to beat the best gelding, then why should he be crowned the best racehorse? As the change has been made, we will simply now have to see how it works – or could there be a reversal of the decision?

I am finding that more and more I appear to be reviewing geldings who are winning group races, though I cannot say if the statistics would show that they are. Perhaps when I have a few hours on my hands (which seems to be never) it would be an interesting study to undertake. What is worth noting, following the weekend racing in France, is that the three races open to all were won by two fillies and a gelding. This means that six of the eight Group 1s were won by fillies and mares, and one each by a colt and a gelding. Food for thought.

The three on this page were all gaining their first Group 1 win. I will start with the five-year-old Fairy Glen (Farhh) who produced a career-best performance to take the honours in the Prix de Royallieu. A dual Group 2 winner in Dubai, her other winning and placed efforts in England and France were up to listed class. Bred by Godolphin, she is one of a pair of winners from Natural Scenery (Dubawi) and that four-time winner was sold at Goffs for just €70,000 in 2022 and headed to Japan.

Argentina

Natural Scenery is one of three winners out of Argentina (Sadler’s Wells). She won a listed race at three, having been successful at two, but it seems scant reward for a mare who was second in three Group/Grade 1 races, the Prix de Diane-French Oaks, Prix Saint-Alery and Diana Stakes in the USA.

Farhh (Pivotal) has been sub-fertile since going to stud, but carefully managed. He has become a leading sire, and his first eight crops include stars such as Tiffany (Group 1 winner in 2026), Tribalist (Prix du Moulin de Longchamp), Fonteyn (Sun Chariot Stakes) and Tweenhills Stud’s King Of Change, winner of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

A MEMORABLE day for The Thoroughbred Racing Corporation on Sunday, which began with a Group 1 victory for Green Empress, ended with another, this time the three-year-old Miss Scott (Night Of Thunder) capping her previous best, a win in the Group 3 Snow Fairy Fillies Stakes at the Curragh, with a defeat of Precise, Aventure and others in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera.

This race has been won by many standouts in the past decade, and you get the feeling that there is much more to come from Miss Scott. She is the third stakes winner out of the unraced Queen Guenevere (Camelot), and joins Maltese Cross (Sea The Stars) as the second Group 1 winner for Camelot (Montjeu) as a broodmare sire. Watch for any of his daughters that come on the market.

Ballylinch Stud and Ecurie des Charmes (Lucien Urano) bred Miss Scott, a 650,000gns yearling, and she is the fourth progeny of her dam. The first of the mare’s offspring was a once-raced filly. Her second foal is Grand Stars (Sea The Stars), a Group 1-placed stakes winner who sold for €800,000 at three and is owned by Newsells Park. Listed winner Catalina Delcarpio (Lope De Vega) followed, was a 400,000gns yearling, a listed winer and placed in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes, and she sold last for 800,000gns. Then came Miss Scott.

Queen Guenevere’s last offspring is the unraced two-year-old colt Bay River (New Bay). He cost Amanda Skiffington €220,000 last year at Arqana. What a loss Queen Guenevere was at the age of just 10. With four daughters to breed from, she will hopefully appear in the pedigrees of many more winners in the future. This weekend and next will be crucial in the race to be champion sire, with Night Of Thunder holding a slight lead over Frankel.

BRED by Tally-Ho Stud and sold by them as a yearling at Goffs UK for £32,000, Miss Yechance (Cotai Glory) started her racing career in the best possible way, sent out by Jack Morland to win a Redcar maiden. She was sold in a Tattersalls Online Pop-up Sale six days before Royal Ascot 2025, and ran down the field in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes,

Since then Miss Yechanc has changed racing jurisdictions and trainers, winning again for Morland, when she was trained in the UAE, but she has blossomed under Karl Burke, and on her last three runs landed a York handicap, Newbury’s Group 3 World Trophy Stakes, and the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. She is the fourth Group or Grade 1 winner for Cotai Glory (Exceed And Excel), and comes as he stood his first season at Izmit Stud. That farm is operated by the Turkish Jockey Club.

Prior to Miss Yechance, Cotai Glory had two other excellent daughters. Excellent Truth, sold at the end of last year for $2.5 million to Kasumi Yoshida, won the Grade 1 Diana Stakes, and was second three times at the highest level in France and the USA. The Platinum Queen was another Yoshida buy for 1,200,000gns after she too won the Prix de l’Abbaye. Meanwhile, Cotai Glory’s highest-rated son is last year’s Group 1 British Champions Sprint winner Powerful Glory.

Mr Yoshida

It was no surprise that Karl Burke gave 450,000gns on Monday at Tattersalls for another yearling filly by Cotai Glory, as this one is a half-sister to the summer’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner, and last year’s Group 1 Prix Morny heroine, Venetian Sun (Starman). If his new purchase earns blacktype, maybe all Burek will need to do is put a call into Mr Yoshida.

Montgomery Motto was a buyer at last week’s Goffs Orby Sale. He raced Excellent Truth, and it was understandable that he should be attracted to a daughter of Cotai Glory who topped the last day of Book 2. She sold from the Irish National Stud for €210,000, was bred by Michael Rosenfeld, and is closely related to the good sprinter Osterhase (Flying Spur).

Motto said: “This filly is very similar to Excellent Truth: nearly a spitting image, in fact. There was a lot of competition for her. I don’t have a plan yet, but she’ll likely race in Europe. I have horses with two trainers – Andrea Marcialis in Italy and Mauricio Delcher Sanchez in Chantilly, who trained Excellent Truth.” Perhaps Motto is another who needs to keep Mr Yoshida’s number close by.