Grand Glory Captures Prix Jean Romanet

Deauville's intimate enclosure was full to bursting Aug. 22 with every kind of contrasting emotion at the culmination of a pulsating Darley Prix Jean Romanet (G1).

For the U.S.-Italian connections of Grand Glory , the tears were of joy after Cristian Demuro conjured one final effort to deprive 2020 heroine Audarya  on the line, giving Maisons-Laffitte trainer Gianluca Bietolini the biggest success of his career.

For James Fanshawe and owner Alison Swinburn there was a mixture of pride, relief, and frustration after Audarya bounced back from a lifeless effort in the Qatar Nassau Stakes (G1) with a tooth-and-claw defense of her title.

And in a quieter corner of that chaotic throng, William Jarvis and Emma Banks were lost in quiet reflection and evident disappointment after Goodwood heroine Lady Bowthorpe  took her turn to run well below par, beating only one home having never seriously threatened in the home straight.

While co-owner John d'Amato was on the phone regaling his two co-owners stateside with details of Grand Glory's victory—"if you don't come over for her next run, you're dead to me!" he yelled with friendly menace—Bietolini was struggling to take in the success of a mare in whom he has always believed, but who had never come closer to breaking her group 1 duck than when third in the 2019 Prix de Diane Longines (G1).

"I really wanted a good pace to run at and she got a lovely clean split and then she had to accelerate twice," said Bietolini, who won half a dozen group 1's in his native Italy before trading the Capannelle in Rome for the quiet pistes of Maisons-Laffitte in 2013. 

"She was really extraordinary there because she had to really pick up just to get to the leader and then there was a moment when I wondered if she could go past. But she was so courageous and Cristian gave her a brilliant ride," Bietolini said. "It's a dream to win a race like this and especially with this mare. She really deserved it and I'm still pinching myself, I can't believe it."

Reunited with Ioritz Mendizabal, Audarya gave everything and was trimmed to 10-1 (from 14) by Betfair and Paddy Power to follow up last year's Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) success at Del Mar in November.

"She ran very well and the last 100 meters seemed a long way. It's good to see her back after Goodwood. She's run really well today and it's just annoying she got beaten," Fanshawe said. "That's the game and I think she was the same price as last year. It would be lovely to go to the Opera (G1) again and to defend her crown in the Breeders' Cup if we can but we just have to take each race as it comes."

Thundering Nights  was 1 1/4 lengths back in third and confirmed her Alwasmiyah Pretty Polly (G1) superiority over Cayenne Pepper  and Insinuendo .

Jarvis at Loss to Explain Lady Bowthorpe No-Show

William Jarvis has lived the highs and lows of his wonder season with Lady Bowthorpe in the full glare of the cameras and answering every request from a press enchanted by her rags to riches tale.

After his stable star could only trail in seventh of the eight runners, he could have been forgiven for slipping back to the sanctuary of the Deauville racecourse stables as he attempted to process a performance that must have been almost a stone below that which she produced on her day of days at Goodwood. 

But after ensuring Lady Bowthorpe had drunk her fill, Jarvis stayed on to answer the inevitable question: what went wrong?

"It's very disappointing as she didn't pick up, she didn't show her normal turn of foot," Jarvis said. "She hasn't run-up to her Goodwood form.

"Kieran (Shoemark) said she was a bit quiet but she'd traveled over good and we can't really find an excuse at the moment. It's horse racing. We had our day in the sun at Goodwood and we'd never swap it. Nobody can take that away from us.

"She didn't run like the filly we saw at Goodwood," Jarvis added. "She's had a long season, remember, she's been on the go since the Dahlia (G2). We'll sleep on it. She's pulled up sound and she's hardly blowing so we'll live to fight another day."

Across the unsaddling enclosure, James Fanshawe looked on at Audarya having had to process the same feelings when she ran well below expectations behind Lady Bowthorpe in the Nassau.

The two Newmarket veterans might well have had an interesting discussion on the way out of Deauville.