L'Amour de Balanchine

L'Amour De Ma Vie reversed her previous defeat to Certify at Meydan on Thursday, with her third career victory proving to be a comfortable one in the GII Balanchine Stakes.

Previously seen finishing second in the GII Cape Verdi Stakes a few weeks prior, L'Amour De Ma Vie benefited from a clever tracking ride from Andre Fabre's stable jockey, Maxime Guyon, to comfortably account for her five rivals, winning at the wire by one and three-quarter lengths.

Certify, whom was considerably reluctant to load prior to the start of the race, was restrained early on in the contest by Mikael Barzalona, despite her clear desire to race a lot further forward, with Barzalona opting to take his previously unbeaten filly wide into the home turn to challenge.

With the pedestrian early pace taking its toll, Certify was unable to deliver a late challenge of any similar substance to that of her Cape Verdi success, and struggled to land a blow for any of the minor positions, eventually having to settle for fourth place in her first lifetime defeat. 

"She ran very well and finished very close to Certify last time,"said winner jockey, Maxime Guyon. "She's done it well and has come on a lot from her last run. I think she'd appreciate some give in the ground, but she has the class so she's got away with it. She's progressing all the time."

Despite claiming two victories on opening day of the 2014 Dubai International Racing Carnival, Barzalona has struggled to continue along a consistent path this season with just three victories to his name since that day - those wins coming aboard Long John, Certify and Saxo Jack.

Beaten on two strongly fancied Godolphin runners on today's card, Barzalona is 3-for-26 since his opening day double.