Tuesday's Prix de la Serpentine at Chantilly featured some choice pedigrees among the debutantes and it was The Last Dance (Iffraaj) who stole the show in scintillating fashion to become a TDN Rising Star, Presented by Hagyard.
Content to use her familial speed on the front end from the outset, the 5-2 second favourite 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.
The winner, who races for the partnership of Sheikh Omar Esmil Ghrghar, the Lerners and Antoine Gilibert, holds entries in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane. Iffraaj, the sire of Wootton Bassett, remains a force to be reckoned with. His previous TDN Rising Star was the eventual Lockinge hero Audience.
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