Just six runners will trek postward for Tuesday's
G3 Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud, but it is nonetheless an open edition of a contest which includes luminaries such as All Along (Fr), Behera (Ire), Wemyss Bight (GB), Mrs Lindsay and Germance on its honor roll. Conditioner Andre Fabre, who seeks an outright record of eight renewals, is represented by Godolphin's Balsamine (Street Cry {Ire}), a daughter of the 1994 G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 Irish Derby victress Balanchine (Storm Bird). The homebred bay returns to the turf coming off all-weather scores at Pornichet-la-Baule Oct. 16, and at Chantilly Nov. 7. Godolphin's Lisa-Jane Graffard said, “Balsamine is in good form. She needs to run in group company now, having won a maiden and a conditions race as a juvenile. This is a bit of a fact-finding mission in terms of finding out which level she will be racing at over the coming months. She has never shown a huge amount at home and surprised us a little last year with her performances on the racecourse. We hope she can continue her improvement this season.”
Fabre also saddles Oct. 22 G3 Prix des Reservoirs runner-up Baltic Comtesse (Fr) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), who has been supplemented at a cost of €5,760. Gerard Tocze's Princess Charm (Ire) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}) has registered three victories to date and bids to progress from earning a first black-type win, beating Starsic (Fr) (Sageburg {Ire}), in the Mar. 15 Listed Prix Rose de Mai going a half panel shy of this
10 1/2-furlong test. Alain and Gerard Wertheimer's Queen's Jewel (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), from the Freddy Head barn, was the easy winner of a 10-furlong debutantes' heat at Deauville in her only prior go
Mar. 10, but faces a stern task in this pattern-race bow. Haras de la Perelle's dual winner Spring Leaf (Fr) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) completes the line-up.
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