Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant makes her European debut at Deauville
Clever couple Ville de Grace and Aristia, representing Sir Michael Stoute and Richard Hannon respectively, along with Rosscarbery for Irish trainer Paddy Twomey, cross the channel for Sunday’s Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville for senior fillies and mares. But the most interesting foreign visitor in the line-up is Verry Elleegant, last year’s Melbourne Cup winner, who will make her first start in Europe after joining Chantilly coach Francis-Henri Graffard. In the saddle sits Frankie Dettori.
Whilst it is not uncommon for Australian sprinters to try their luck in Europe, with Nature Strip being the last to do so with notable success at Royal Ascot this year, it was mainly two-way traffic the other way at the Melbourne Cup. Recent editions of Australia’s most famous race have been won by horses either trained in Europe or exported from Europe.
The New Zealand bred Verry Elleegant, formerly trained in Australia by Nature Strip trainer Chris Waller, was therefore an exception last year and is now becoming a rare native Melbourne Cup winner to venture abroad. 1991 Melbourne Cup winner Let’s Elope, another mare, was later trained in the United States, where she finished first behind the post in the Grade 1 Beverly D Stakes, but was demoted to third place.
The most famous Melbourne Cup winner to try his luck abroad was legendary 1930 winner Phar Lap, also bred in New Zealand. He was shipped to Mexico and won the prized Agua Caliente Handicap, but his adventure in North America was tragically cut short when he died under mysterious circumstances not long after.
Verry Elleegant, now seven for the Northern Hemisphere, is a veteran of 38 races, winning 16, and has amassed nearly A$15 million in prize money. The Melbourne Cup was her tenth Group 1 win and while that two-mile success might suggest she finds the mile and a quarter at Deauville an inadequate test, not uncommon for a top Australian player, she did in Europe Comparison norms shown remarkable versatility.
In fact, most of her wins have come within a mile and a quarter, and her most recent win, a number 11 Group 1 win, at the Chipping Norton Stakes at Randwick in February came over a mile. She also boasts a seven-stay Group 1 win in the Winx Stakes, this time at the same distance two years ago.
Verry Elleegant was a four-time Melbourne Cup winner who at first sight produced a high-class performance to beat Incentivise, the lowest-priced favorite since Phar Lap, with the very intelligent Andrew Balding-trained stayer Spanish to second place Mission, who once narrowly edged Stradivarius at the Lonsdale Cup in York, ended up back in third place at balanced weights.
All in all, however, the most recent form of Verry Elleegant is no better than clever for the most part, although even a reproduction of that would make her very competitive on her European debut. But she needs to improve on her last start in Australia in April when she was a disappointing fifth-place favorite in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.
Although Verry Elleegant has not yet raced in Europe, he has plenty of form in Australia with horses that will be household names in the local area. Ahead of the Melbourne Cup, Verry Elleegant was beaten to third place by a length behind this year’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner State of Rest in Australia’s most prestigious weight-for-age event, the Cox Plate. She also enjoyed a close rivalry with 2020 Champion Stakes winner Addeybb at his runs in Australia. Addeybb beat Verry Elleegant to second place in three of their meetings, although on the other occasion at the 2021 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill she managed to beat him by a length. Another notable scalp Verry Elleegant has taken is that of 2019 Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, whom she hit in the head at another of Australia’s biggest races, the Caulfield Cup.
Verry Elleegant’s move to France was announced in May in a surprise statement, in which her owners said: “After much deliberation we have come to the realization that if we can get her in Europe, we need to do it right and send her there want to apply trained and prepared in the northern hemisphere.’
Verry Elleegant has yet to be matched for her rumored main target, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but she has other big entries in Europe in the autumn including in the Irish Champion Stakes and the Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot.