Diamond Necklace is now rated just 1lb behind stablemate True Love – the highest-rated European three-year-old in training by Timeform – after her impressive triumph in the French 1000 Guineas.
Diamond Necklace had signed off last season with a stylish win over the same course and distance in the Prix Marcel Boussac, and this time she improved another chunk in winning by a comfortable three lengths at Longchamp to take her rating to 116p from 109p.
The placed fillies from the Prix Marcel Boussac stayed on to make the frame again, Green Spirit doing so eye-catchingly from a long way back, though it was another with an unbeaten record who chased the winner home, while those up front didn’t see it out in what were grim, deteriorating conditions.
The time was over two seconds slower than the colts earlier on, and it was just the second time since 2000 that it had taken over one minute and forty seconds to run.
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Diamond Necklace was just kept up to her work in the closing stages having quickened into the lead over a furlong out, and she promises to improve further still, particularly when moving up in trip.
She looks likely to stay a mile and a quarter and will be the one to beat if returning for the French Oaks next time.
Timeform’s Andrew Asquith said: “Diamond Necklace had beaten several of these behind on her final start last season and she could have hardly made a better impression on her seasonal return.
“She was always well positioned in behind the pacesetters and got a dream run through, quick to head to the far-side rail once the cutaway appeared and having the race sewn up from there.
“Her performance wasn’t far behind the one stablemate True Love put up in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, and Diamond Necklace promises to improve further still, especially when having her stamina stretched.
“A French-bred filly by St Mark’s Basilica, the obvious next step for her would be the Prix de Diane next month, for which she’s a short-priced favourite, and it’s hard to see what would lower her colours at this stage.”
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Geoffrey H. Latayan