Etoile Nocturne opens her Group account

Report: Germany, Saturday 

Hamburg: Lotto Hamburg Trophy (Group 3), 6f, 3yo+

Five-year-old Etoile Nocturne was narrowly defeated at the Baden-Baden spring meeting, but went one better at Hamburg on Saturday to open her Group race account.

A 37-10 chance, she made virtually all under William Mongil to land the 6f Group 3 Lotto Hamburg Trophy by three quarters of a length from Lips Arrow.

In a race where most of the seven-strong field were bunched up at the head of affairs, the Medicean mare gamely found more under pressure in the final stages.

Disappointment of the race was second-favourite Calrissian, who was hampered at the start and always trailed at the rear of the field.

Speaking after the race, winning trainer Werner Baltromei paid tribute to the mare's usual rider Dominique Boeuf.

He said: "We've thought about retiring her a couple of times, but Dominique has always maintained that if we kept her in training she would win a Group race.

"She prefers cut in the ground, so now we will prepare her for an autumn campaign in France."