Star filly Blue Rose Cen heads for Goodwood

Star filly Blue Rose Cen is set her British debut in the Qatar Nassau Stakes at Goodwood on August 3.

Having triumphed in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, and Marcel Boussac last year, the French champion sealed a rare treble at Chantilly by winning the Prix de Diane earlier this month, matching only Zarkava, Divine Proportions, and Allez France.

After winning seven of her nine runs, Blue Rose Cen stepped up to an extended 10-furlong distance on her last outing and trainer Christopher Head is eager to remain at that trip, when she will face older and more experienced rivals in the Group 1 on the Sussex Downs.

He told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “The main idea is to still keep up with the challenges. The owner has always been bold and daring in racing challenges and we have been talking about the next stage for Blue Rose Cen and he wants to go to the Nassau to do the same as Nashwa did with the Prix de Diane and Nassau double and we really have great faith in her with that programme.

“I don’t think we have got to the limit of that filly yet. I still want to encounter the older fillies without getting into a new distance, so we’ll keep with the distance we know she is best at right now and try to encounter a new panel of fillies to be able to know if she is capable of getting into the Vermeille and then we will pretty much know if she is an Arc or an Opera (horse).

“Even if she is not in the race, it is a possibility she can still be supplemented into the Arc. Leopoldo Fernández Pujals of Yeguada Centurion is a really a bold and daring individual, embracing challenges, so we’re trying to do our best to get the horses to those kind of challenges, and that’s why we’re happy to go to the Nassau.”

Head also trains Big Rock for the same owner, but he failed in his Classic mission when beaten three and a half lengths by Ace Impact in the Prix du Jockey Club.

That was his first attempt over further than nine furlongs and Head feels his future now lies over a mile.

He added: “He’s pretty much a mile horse or a 1800-metre horse and we learned that in the Jockey Club. We will put him onto another path which is the Jacques Le Marois and probably the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes too.”