Blue Rose Cen Joins Elite Group With Prix de Diane Win

While it was a relatively quiet weekend in North America, on the other side of the Atlantic a slice of history was made. At Chantilly, Blue Rose Cen (IRE) took the Prix de Diane-French Oaks (G1) to become only the fourth filly in a 50-year span—following the immortal Allez France, the undefeated Zarkava (IRE), and the once-beaten Divine Proportions—to complete the Prix Marcel Boussac-Criterium des Pouliches (G1), Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (G1), and Diane treble. A homebred, Blue Rose Cen has already made nine starts. Unplaced sprinting on her debut, she followed up with wins in a maiden over seven furlongs at Saint-Cloud, and a conditions event over a mile at Clairefontaine. Her progress was temporarily interrupted on her black-type debut, the Criterium du Fonds Europeen de l'Elevage, where she went down by a short head to the colt Victoria Road (IRE), form that looked much more impressive later in the year when Victoria Road captured the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T). Back with her own sex, Blue Rose Cen scored a first black-type victory in the Prix d'Aumale (G3), and the announced herself as France's top 2-year-old filly, scoring by five lengths in the Prix Marcel Boussac on the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) undercard. This year, Blue Rose Cen resumed with a win in the Prix de la Grotte (G3), then on very soft ground accounted for the Prix de la Grotte runner-up, Lindy (FR), by 1 3/4 lengths in the Poule d'Essai. On Sunday, running on much faster ground and tackling a distance farther than a mile for the first time, Blue Rose Cen took over two furlongs out and drew off to score by four lengths. The time, in part due to the pacesetting work of Blue Rose Cen's stable companion, Wise Girl (FR), who stayed on for a good fourth, was the second fastest in the history of the race. Blue Rose Cen is from the second Northern Hemisphere crop of the Galileo stallion Churchill (IRE), a champion European 2-year-old colt and champion European 3-year-old miler. Churchill won seven of 13 starts, including the English Two Thousand Guineas (G1), Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1), Juddmonte International Stakes (G1), Dewhurst Stakes (G1), National Stakes (G1), and Futurity Stakes (G2). Churchill sired another outstanding performer from his first crop in European champion 3-year-old Vadeni (FR), winner of the Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby (G1) and Eclipse Stakes (G1). Overall, with his oldest only 4, Churchill has 11 stakes winners to his name, eight of them group. Blue Rose Cen is the first foal of her dam, Queen Blossom (IRE), a daughter of the Danehill Dancer line stallion Jeremy. She campaigned successfully on both sides of the Atlantic, winning the Lodge Park Stakes (G3) in Ireland at 3 and the Santa Barbara Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park as a 5-year-old. Queen's Blossom's dam, Mark of An Angel, never won a race but gained black type with a third in the Silver Flash Stakes (G3) at 2. The next performer of note in the female line is Blue Rose Cen's fourth dam, Grey Angel. She was foaled in England but exported to South Africa, where she won five black-type events, including the Gosforth Park Fillies & Mares Stakes (G3) and Racecourse Bookmakers' Handicap (G3), and took second in the Gosforth Park Fillies & Mares Challenge Handicap (G1). Behind this, the female line is a North American one. Blue Rose Cen's fifth dam is by Seattle Slew out of the Majestic Prince mare In My Way, a half sister to Savage Bunny, the second dam of Epsom Derby (G1) winner Benny The Dip. The family goes back to the noted tap-root mare Albania, ancestress of at least 17 horses that won at group or grade 1 standard, including the champion U.S. 3-year-old filly Grecian Queen; Australian superstar Northerly; the 2023 Tokyo Yushun (G1) victor, Tastiera, and fellow Japanese-bred standouts Tosen Jordan, Tosen Stardom, and Company; and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) hero River Keen. Another from this family is the successful sire Mt. Livermore. Blue Rose Cen is a product of an extended version of the phenomenally successful Galileo/Danehill cross, and Galileo and sons have sired nearly 50 stakes winners out of mares by Danehill Dancer, grandsire of the dam of Blue Rose Cen. We can also note that Galileo is from the same 'G' mtDNA line as Blue Rose Cen herself.