When Hollie Doyle and Marco Botti take on the unbeaten Folgaria in the Poule D'Essai Des Pouliches at ParisLongchamp on Sunday, they will continue their partnership.
There are just 17 fillies left in the French 1000 Guineas, and Elmalka, who came in third behind her in the Fred Darling at Newbury, winning the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket gave her form a big boost.
She arrived at Newbury as an unknown quantity, having been undefeated in Italy at the age of two, but she is no longer.
“It was good to see Roger’s filly win the Guineas and the form received a nice little boost, the Fred Darling looks quite solid,” said Botti. “The plan is to go, she’s in good form and we’ve been happy with her. Hollie Doyle will keep the ride and now we just need a little bit of luck. There is an extra furlong, but I always think the mile at Longchamp around a bend is probably better suited to her than the straight mile at Newmarket, which was the main reason to send her to France instead.”
He went on: “She’s a big filly and right now I’d say she’d prefer a bit of cut in the ground. She did have form in Italy on fast ground and soft ground, but our impression is she’d prefer a bit of ease. She won over a mile in Italy but obviously, that was a different level, it wouldn’t have been as strong as the French Guineas for sure. It’s exciting, as Roger said to me the pressure is now on us but it was good to see that form work out well. We knew she was a nice filly watching her work, but we didn’t know what level she was going to be – after Sunday now we know she’s very good.”