New TDN Rising Star The Last Dance Dazzles At Chantilly
Tuesday’s Prix de la Serpentine at Chantilly featured some choice pedigrees among the debutantes and it was the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane entry The Last Dance (Iffraaj) who stole the show in scintillating fashion to become a TDN Rising Star, Presented by Hagyard.
“We have the right to dream with a filly like her, we can think about the great races in the spring,” co-owner and co-breeder Antoine Gilibert told Paris Turf. “Even her jockey was impressed with the style of her win and the more it went on, the more comfortable she became.”
Content to use her familial speed on the front end from the outset, the 5-2 second favourite who races for the partnership of Sheikh Omar Esmil Ghrghar, the Lerners and Gilibert, was always comfortable waiting for the go from Christophe Soumillon sauntering on the lead. When that came in early straight, the Carlos and Yann Lerner-trained half-sister to the classy Godspeed (Hello Youmzain) wasted no time in imposing her superiority.
Surging clear of the Moussac Family colour-bearer Mennula (Wootton Bassett) and the Wertheimers’ Maine (Night Of Thunder), the €105,000 Arqana August purchase had 4 1/2 lengths and a short head to spare over that daughter of the Long Island Handicap winner Aigue Marine (Galileo) and half-sister to the Prix Vermeille heroines Aventure (Sea The Stars) and Left Hand (Dubawi) at the line. In doing so, she registered a closing three-furlong sectional of 33.64, with her final two splits being 10.65 and 10.88.
A special performance on debut! 🤯
Iffraaj filly The Last Dance looks a real talent as she scoots clear at Chantilly… 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/dzHBPb7RLP
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) March 3, 2026
Pedigree Notes
The Last Dance is the second TDN Rising Star for Darley’s longstanding stalwart Iffraaj, the sire of Wootton Bassett who remains a force to be reckoned with. His previous to earn the tag was the eventual Lockinge hero Audience.
The dam Mary’s Precedent (Storming Home) was successful in the Listed Prix de Bagatelle and has produced two black-type performers in the Listed-placed Mary’s France (Acclamation) and the aforementioned starlet Godspeed (Hello Youmzain) who captured last year’s G2 Prix de Sandringham at this venue and was fourth in the Prix Rothschild for this stable.
Mary’s Precedent hails from the family of the G3 Prix Cleopatre winner and G1 Prix Saint-Alary third Crown Princesse (Zarak), with the third dam Allwaki (Miswaki) the ancestress of the star broodmare Starlet’s Sister (Galileo). She was responsible for the high-class quartet Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie), Sottsass, Shin Emperor and My Sister Nat (Acclamation).