00214944-028-scoopdyga_editEternal Pearl © Valentin Desbriel/ScoopDygaEurope

Eternal Pearl seals a Frankel stakes Deauville double

Three-year-old Frankel filly Eternal Pearl backed up her Listed win at Newmarket in July with success in the Gr.3 Prix Minerve at Deauville yesterday.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 15th August 2002, by Tom Frary:

Entering Sunday's Gr.3 Prix Minerve at Deauville off a success in the Listed Aphrodite Stakes at Newmarket (July 16th) Godolphin's Eternal Pearl was on top again with the class rise as less a problem as her odds of 9-10 suggested beforehand.

Always travelling easily for William Buick under cover, the descendant of the Gr.1 Prix Vermeille heroine Pearly Shells  moved to the front with a furlong remaining and stayed on powerfully to score by two lengths from Queen Trezy.

"She's learning all the time and quickened up the straight today, whereas it became a stamina test at Newmarket last time," trainer Charlie Appleby said. "She will hopefully go that next level and we'll perhaps look at the Vermeille for her - she's a big, scopey filly who needs to strengthen but more importantly she's getting more of a racing brain. She's going the right way and she could be around next year."

Eternal Pearl, who had also been second to the subsequent Gr.2 Ribblesdale Stakes runner-up Sea Silk Road in Goodwood's Listed Height Of Fashion Stakes, is out of the Listed Prix des Lilas winner Pearly Steph (Oasis Dream).