Prix de Diane heroine Senga dies at the age of four

The Niarchos family are mourning the loss of their 2017 Prix de Diane winner Senga, after the daughter of Blame died at the age of four last Thursday.

Having made her debut as a two-year-old, it was on her second start as a juvenile that Senga shed her maiden tag in the mile Prix Guemul at Saint-Cloud in 2016. That win was subsequently followed by a fourth-place effort behind Wuheida in the Prix Marcel Boussac.

Her seasonal reappearance came in April of last year where she took out the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte and after a couple of disappointing efforts, she returned to winning ways with a dominant success in the Prix de Diane.

Senga descended from a family that has been nurtured by the Niarchos' for a number of years. Out of the winning A.P. Indy mare Beta Leo, she was a half-sister to the Listed-winning Bolting while her third dam was dual Group 1 heroine Coup De Genie - the granddam of Bago, Maxios and Emollient.

Speaking to Jour de Galop the Niarchos' racing manager Alan Cooper said: "Senga died last Thursday. She was in foal to Galileo. It's a real tragedy as the Niarchos family has been developing this family for a long time."

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