Verry Elleegant nearing European debut

Australasia’s darling of the turf Verry Elleegant is edging closer to making her European debut.

Her new trainer Francis-Henri Graffard is eyeing the Gr.1 Prix Rothschild (1600m) at Deauville at the start of next month to kick-off her European career.

Part-owner Brae Sokolski said that Graffard had confirmed Verry Elleegant was progressing well in her preparation following her first gallop on the grass at Chantilly over the weekend.

“She’s going great and she seems to be ahead of her program after talking to Francis yesterday in terms of where her fitness is, which is great because that gives us flexibility to potentially resume sooner than we’d thought,” Sokolski told Racing.com.

“It is now a distinct possibility she could run in the first week of August.”

Verry Elleegant, a daughter of Grangewilliam Stud stallion Zed, was initially trained in New Zealand by Nick Bishara before she was partly sold to Australia where she won 11 races at elite level, including last year’s Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m)