Asfoora creates history in France with third Group 1
Passport panic averted, performance delivered: Asfoora shrugged off pre-race drama to snare the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp, etching her name as the first Australian-trained winner on French soil.
“Unfortunately, her ID and passport didn’t make her way down from Chantilly to the races today,” travelling foreman Simon Morrish told At The Races pre-race.
“We were alerted to that fact as soon as we arrived here. The passport, as we speak, is in an Uber on the way to the track.
“If it gets here in the next five to 10 minutes, we’re OK... otherwise, unfortunately we won’t be running.”
They arrived with seconds to spare, and the seven-year-old mare did the rest—smothered up early in the 17-horse, 1000m burn before Oisin Murphy angled her out and surged past Jawwal to win by a half length.
The victory complements her season’s earlier Group 1 triumph in the Nunthorpe Stakes (1005m) at York and extends a European campaign that began with top-flight success at Royal Ascot last year.
“The dumb Australians forgot to pack the passport, unfortunately, so we had a bit of an issue,” Dwyer said.
“But we had an Uber driver do a mad dash from Chantilly with the passport and he got here with a minute-and-a-half to spare, so it could have been a very different tale.”
“It means a whole lot, obviously,” Dwyer said.
“We came over at the start of last year to England (and) we were trying to chart some new things.
“A lot of Australian horses come over in the European summer for Royal Ascot but not too many continue the preparation, which is what we wanted to do last year, and we fully intended to go for the ‘Abbaye’.
“We just thought she came to the end of it when she ran poorly at York. This year we held her back a little bit and wanted to get her to Ireland and France. The ground didn’t go in our favour in Ireland, but she was able to cope with it today.”
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