Winner of the Group I Newmarket Fillies Mile last season at two and then second
in the Group I English Thousand Guineas before winning the Group I Longchamp
Prix Saint-Alary, Laurens had a class edge over the field and it showed at the
finish.The Karl Burke trained filly was prominent throughout and kicked hard to the line to win by a neck over Dawn Approach filly Musis Amica, taking her overall record to five wins and two seconds from seven starts.
"She's not an Enable that was going to destroy her field by five or six lengths, but she has great ability, a great stride, great cruising speed and she just grinds it out and does what she has to do," said Karl Burke.
The Group I Arc de Triomphe is firmly under consideration, but Burke and owner John Dance will look at a couple of targets closer to home first.
"I would say sitting here there's no reason why we won't be lining up in the Arc, but there's at least one race in between now and then that she should be going for," said Burke.
"We'll get her home and hopefully she recovers as quick as she did in the Saint-Alary. She's in the Irish Oaks, which is in four weeks' time, so she'll have a week longer than the Saint-Alary to here.
"Then John and I would like to take her to the Yorkshire Oaks, which is our home race."
Bought for 220,000 pounds from the Goffs Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale, Laurens is the best of three winners from staying bred Cape Cross mare Recambe, a half-sister to Hong Kong Derby winner Helene Mascot.
"It's fantastic! When we bought Laurens, this was the race we talked about, literally the day we bought her, so to actually come here and win it, it's incredible. She's French-bred and she obviously loves France and coming back home. She's a superstar. She's achieved so much already, it seemed a bit greedy to think she could win again today, but she's proved she's top-class and it's a dream come true," said her owner John Dance.
Laurens is one of 23 stakes-winners for Pivotal stallion Siyouni, the sire of Australian Group II winning 2YO Aylmerton.
