Ireland's Palace Enters Beverly D Picture

The Grade I $750,000 Beverly D. continues to shape up as an excellent contest, with Palace now added to the fray.  Owned by Coolmore principals Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Mrs. John Magnier, Palace is an Aidan O’Brien trainee coming off a poor performance in the Group I Irish Oaks on July 19, but had previously won the Listed Cairn Rouge Stakes just five days prior at Killarney.

Being by speed-laden sire Fastnet Rock, it is no surprise that her aforementioned victory and her excellent second in the Group III Derrinstown Stud 1,000 Guineas Trial on May 11 both came at or around a mile.  A cutback from the 1½ miles of the Irish Oaks to the 1 3/16 miles of the Beverly D. may be welcome if the sophomore takes on her elders.

In other news, MD Bloodstock Limited’s L’Amour de Ma Vie is out of consideration for the Beverly D. after running in Sunday’s Group I Prix Rothschild at Deauville in the north of France.  The flashy gray Dansili mare was to run in the Beverly D. for trainer Pia Brandt only if the ground at Deauville was too soft and she scratched from the event.  She ran last of four.