COQUERELLE IS A CHAMPION

Taken from The Irish Field

A few years ago a three-year-old filly called Ouija Board ran a mind bogglingly fast time to win a major race in the spring. In fact she earned the biggest speed rating I’ve ever given a three-year-old filly in the first half of the season.

Now Coquerelle (41) (ZAMINDAR) has gone and run just as fast as Ouija Board did to win a minor race at Longchamp. In fact she equalled the fastest time run over 1,950 metres at the course in the last decade (by smart older male horse Touch Of Land in the Prix Dollar).

Coquerelle was the last with little more than a furlong to run but produced a sensational turn of foot to power past all her rivals. She has now won all three of her starts and was scoring here over a trip just 55 yards short of a mile and a quarter. So it looks like she has the Prix de Diane at her mercy.

If you look at her pedigree it’s hard to argue that Coquerelle will get the mile and a half, she’ll need to stay if she’s going to be competitive in the Prix Vermeille and the Arc later this season. But these days, it’s unwise to be too dogmatic about stamina limits imposed by a horse’s pedigree.

The fact is Coquerelle has the turn of foot that wins big middle distance races nowadays. In addition she is a good-bodied, deep-chested sort with a long stride (she actually looks more like a colt – a very mature one at that). In other words, she’s built to go a mile and a half.

I fervently wish that some bookmaker was betting on the Arc de Triomphe. If they were I reckon they’d be offering 50/1 or more about Coquerelle and I’d be biting their arm of to take it.

I believe that Coquerelle is going to prove the best three-year-old of either sex in Europe this Year. That’s what my ratings say.

Date: 21 April 2007