Blue Rose Cen is a champ - but Chantilly rivals gifted her the run of the race

There might have been no way to beat Blue Rose Cen in Sunday's Prix de Diane, in which the French filly came home four lengths clear, laughing at doubts about her stamina. But her rivals did nothing to help themselves and her connections must have been stunned to see the race unfold exactly as they would have wished. 

Blue Rose Cen was drawn one, against the inside rail. If a couple of her rivals had bounced out quick from the stalls and eventually positioned themselves on the rail ahead of her, it could have been a nightmare position. Threading your way among 14 rivals in Chantilly's straight is no fun and nor is trying to come around the outside of such a pack. That would have been the choice facing Aurelien Lemaitre if he couldn't achieve a good early position for his filly.

She wasn't the fastest from the stalls and it briefly looked as though there might be a danger of getting hemmed in. But 30 seconds into the race, Blue Rose Cen had worked her way to a prominent position, little more than a length behind her pacemaker, Wise Girl, who effectively prevented anyone else from going across in front of the favourite.