France: Fallen Angel holds off January to win Prix Rothschild
England-based filly Fallen Angel captured Sunday’s US$347,805 Prix Rothschild, a roughly one-mile turf race for fillies and mares that was the first Group 1 stakes of the Deauville summer meet in France.
To secure victory, the 4-year-old Too Darn Hot filly owned by Qatar Sheikh Tamim’s Wathnan Racing did not bother with tactics. As soon as the stalls opened, she took the lead galloping in the center of the track. A second group formed along the grandstand rail, where Ireland filly January (8-5), a 3-year-old by Kingman, bided her time. When her jockey Christophe Soumillon felt this pack was not going fast enough, he angled January to the left to move closer to Fallen Angel.
With five-sixteenths of a mile to go, Fallen Angel (10-1) launched her serious challenge under jockey Daniel Tudhope, kicking off a long duel with January. Ultimately, Fallen Angel prevailed in the very last stride to win by a head. Aidan O’Brien-trained January finished second, and France 4-year-old filly Start of Day (41-1) came in another 1 1/2 lengths back in third for trainer Christopher Head.
“I wouldn’t say we were confident, but we were bullish going there,” said winning trainer Karl Burke, who brought Fallen Angel back from a third-place finish in the Duke of Cambridge (G2) at Royal Ascot. “She doesn’t want any firmness in it like she had at Ascot, where coming round the bend her head just came up a bit. She’s such an honest game mare, and she was battling back in the last 100 yards then as she did today. She only does what you ask her to do, and Aidan’s filly coming to her helped her.”
The winning time was 1:35.10 without a run-up on good turf. The race covered a straight 1,600 meters, 10 yards short of a mile.
Fallen Angel has won one Group 1 race each of the last three seasons. She won at age 2 in the Moyglare Stud in 2023, at 3 in the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 2004 and now at 4 in the Prix Rothschild.
Burke said Fallen Angel could race again in three weeks at Deauville.
“There is the mile-and-a-quarter Prix Jean Romanet (G1), but we’ll enjoy today, get her home and see how she is, and then I’ll speak to the connections,” he said. “But the way she’s won (Sunday), I’d be happy to stick at a mile.”