Close verdicts go against Notable Speech & Diamond Rain

Notable Speech and Diamond Rain ran excellent races in defeat over the weekend, with the duo narrowly touched off in big races in France and Canada.

Last season’s 2,000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes winner Notable Speech produced his best performance of the season at Deauville on Sunday as he stormed through the field to get within a head of Diego Velazquez in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.

Having returned to form, the Dubawi colt looks set to head to Canada for the G1 Woodbine Mile before a return to Del Mar for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile, a race in which he finished third in 2024.

Diamond Rain stayed on powerfully to finish a head second to multiple G1 winner She Feels Pretty in the G1 E P Taylor Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday. The daughter of Shamardal was making her first top-level appearance on the back of Listed and G3 wins in the UK and will now be aimed at some of the leading European races for fillies and mares in the autumn.

The run of seconds spread to the United States, with Good Cheer chasing home fellow Medaglia d’Oro filly Nitrogen in Saratoga’s G1 Alabama Stakes on Saturday. Good Cheer’s best effort came when winning this season’s Kentucky Oaks and she will be hoping to add to her G1 tally when she gets a bigger field and a stronger pace in her races.

First Mission has G1 ambitions of his own, although he met with a surprise defeat in the G3 Philip H Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park on the same day. G1 Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Cualificar was also denied in Saturday’s G2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano in France, as he finished third behind Japanese challenger Alohi Alii.

Morris Dancer headlined a good week for the juvenile crop with an easy win in Salisbury’s Listed Stonehenge Stakes. Avicenna and Catullus also scored in the UK, while Quiet Street made a winning debut at Saratoga.

Three of Godolphin’s star performers of 2025 will be hoping to continue their fine campaigns over the coming days, with Prince Of Wales’s Stakes victor Ombudsman lining up in one of the races of the season, the G1 Juddmonte International at York on Wednesday.

Top stayer Trawlerman will be looking to repeat his Gold Cup heroics when he also heads to York on Friday for the G2 Lonsdale Cup, while Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty bids to add the G1 Travers Stakes to his sensational year at Saratoga on Saturday.