Diamond Necklace (Ire)

After making sure that Ballydoyle's 1-2 favourite Diamond Necklace (St Mark's Basilica) delivered in Sunday's G1 Prix de Diane Longines at Chantilly, Ryan Moore become the first jockey in history to win every English, Irish and French Classic. This was far from straightforward, with the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine pushed all the way to the line by the 35-1 outsider Pink Panthera (Chachnak), who nearly stole it for France under Tony Piccone, but Moore was in his usual unflinching mood to hold on by a short neck. Inis Mor (Galiway)...

Eleven fillies will head postward for Sunday's G1 Prix de Diane Longines at Chantilly after declarations were confirmed Thursday morning. Ryan Moore is set to partner G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine, and likely favourite, Diamond Necklace (St Mark's Basilica), who has drawn stall three. Her Aidan O'Brien stablemate Moments Of Joy (Justify) will exit stall eight under Wayne Lordan. "Everything has gone well with Diamond Necklace since she won the French Guineas and I've been very happy with her," O'Brien commented, "The plan was...

Staged in relentless driving rain, Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches offered a dramatic backdrop to the continued rise of Ballydoyle's brilliant Diamond Necklace who provided St Mark's Basilica with his first Classic. Sent off the 4-5 favourite returning to the ParisLongchamp track over which she had dominated the Prix Marcel Boussac in the autumn, the regally-bred TDN Rising Star tracked the early pace under cover before being sent down to the rail at the straight's cutaway. Surging to the front 300 metres from the finish, she was kept up...

A baker's dozen will go forward for Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains and 15 are set to head postward for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches after declarations for the ParisLongchamp Classics were confirmed Friday morning. Likely favourite for the colts' Classic is G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and G1 Criterium International hero Puerto Rico (Wootton Bassett), who will be accompanied by Aidan O'Brien stablemate Dorset (Wootton Bassett), as the trainer seeks a seventh win in the contest. They have drawn stalls seven and three, respectively. The domestic defence is...

ParisLongchamp's Arc card got underway in style as Ballydoyle's Diamond Necklace swooped to provide St Mark's Basilica with his first Group 1 winner in the Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac. Sent off the favourite for the first of the fixture's six Breeders' Cup "Win And You're In" races, the Listed Ingabelle Stakes winner who is a TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard, was always comfortable and when asked to mow down the Wertheimers' unbeaten Green Spirit (Kingman) did so without any need for the whip. "She's amazing," commented a smitten Christophe...

Coolmore and Westerberg's €1.7-million Arqana August sale topper Diamond Necklace (St Mark's Basilica) backed up a TDN Rising Star performance at the Curragh last month with a first black-type triumph in Saturday's Listed Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown. "I was quite confident when I saw the attitude she had going down to the start and she was really professional," said winning jockey Christophe Soumillon. "She was a little impatient in the stalls and didn't jump out properly. I had to change plans because she was quite far...